V"*" 


MEMORIES  OF 

YALE  LIFE  AND  MEN 

1845-1899 


BV 

TIMOTHY  DWIGHT 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 
1903 


Copyright,    1903,   by 
Dodd,  Mead  and  Company 


Published,  May,  1903. 


TO  THE  FRIENDS 
OF  THE  PRESENT  TIME  AND  THE  PAST 

IN  ASSOCIATION  WITH  WHOM 

IT  HAS  BEEN  MY  HAPPY  FORTUNE 

TO  GIVE  MY  SERVICE  TO 

YALE  UNIVERSITY 
THIS  VOLUME  IS  DEDICATED 


2012391 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 

THE  story  of  the  years  which  is  presented  on  the 
following  pages  has,  like  all  records  of  personal 
memories,  its  starting-point  and,  in  large  meas- 
ure, its  movement  in  the  sphere  of  individual  experi- 
ence. If,  as  a  consequence  of  this  fact,  a  certain 
prominence  appears  at  times  to  be  given  to  its  author 
which,  in  a  volume  of  a  different  order,  would  not  be 
manifest,  and  which,  had  it  seemed  practicable  at  the 
outset,  he  would  have  gladly  avoided,  he  can  only  ask 
indulgence  of  his  readers,  requesting  them  to  turn  their 
thought,  as  far  as  may  be,  from  himself  and  to  center 
it  wholly  upon  the  life  of  the  University  and  the  men 
who  are  described. 

For  the  graduates  of  Yale,  whether  of  the  earlier  or 
the  later  time,  the  writer  hopes  that  the  story  may  have 
an  interest  because  it  tells  somewhat  of  the  growth  and 
progress,  during  the  half-century  just  ended,  of  the 
institution  which  they  love.  For  others,  who  as  friends 
of  the  University  are  ever  ready  to  rejoice  in  its  well- 
being,  he  trusts  that  the  book  will  carry  in  itself  a  pleas- 
ant record  of  the  past  and  a  happy  prophecy  of  the 
future; — while  to  all,  wherever  they  may  be,  who  prize 
the  privilege  of  the  higher  education,  its  pages,  if  they 
chance  to  read  them,  cannot  fail,  as  he  thinks,  to  bring 
some  word  of  encouragement  that  the  blessings  attend- 
ant upon  this  privilege  will  hereafter  be  yet  greater  and 
more  widely  extended. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    THE  HOPKINS  GRAMMAR  SCHOOL  AND  ITS  RECTOR  .        .        i 

II    BEGINNINGS  OF  COLLEGE  LIFE n 

Til    OUR  EARLIEST  COLLEGE  TEACHERS,  1845-46 — THE  IN- 
STRUCTION AND  DISCIPLINE  OF  THAT  PERIOD      .        .      24 
IV    PRESIDENT    DAY'S    RETIREMENT — His   CHARACTER  AND 

WORK,  AND  His  ERA 39 

V    STUDENT  LIFE  AT  YALE,  1845-1849 55 

VI     RELIGIOUS  EXERCISES  AND  PREACHING  OF  THE  PERIOD — 

COURSE  OF  STUDY  AND  DAILY  STUDENT  LIFE     .        .      76 
VII    LIFE  AS  GRADUATE  STUDENT,  AND  IN  THE  TUTORSHIP — 

1849  to  1855 97 

VIII     THE  OLD  FACULTY — PROFESSORS  SILLIMAN  AND  KINGSLEY     114 
IX    THE  OLD  FACULTY — PROFESSORS  OLMSTED  AND  LARNED  .     140 
X    THE    OLD    FACULTY — PROFESSORS    PORTER,    THACHER, 

HADLEY  AND  STANLEY 157 

XI    DR.  WOOLSEY — His  INAUGURATION,  AND  EARLY  WORK  .    181 
XII    OTHER  INSTRUCTORS,  AND  TUTORS;  AND  SOME  MATTERS 

OF  COLLEGE  LIFE,  1851-55 202 

XIII  STUDENT  YEARS  IN  GERMANY — UNIVERSITIES  OF  BERLIN 

AND  BONN,  1856-58 223 

XIV  YALE  DIVINITY  SCHOOL,  AND  ITS  OLDER  FACULTY        .    251 
XV    THE  DIVINITY  SCHOOL — ITS  REBUILDING  AND  ITS  LATER 

FACULTY        . 278 

XVI    DR.  SAMUEL  HARRIS,  AND  DR.  LEONARD  BACON    .        .  294 
XVII    DR.   WOOLSEY'S  ADMINISTRATION — SOME   MEN    OF    His 

TIME,  1846-71 311 

XVIII     DR.  PORTER'S  PRESIDENCY — SOME  MEN  OF  His  ERA      .  342 
XIX    THE  UNIVERSITY — 1886-99— CHANGES  FROM  THE  EARLIER 

TIME      .        ... 369 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XX    THE   FACULTY— PROFESSORS  LOOMIS,  JAMES    D.   DANA 

AND  NEWTON 384 

XXI    PROFESSORS  WHITNEY,  EATON,  MARSH  AND  LYMAN        .  401 
XXII    PROFESSORS   MCLAUGHLIN,   EDWARD  J.   PHELPS,  SALIS- 
BURY AND  OTHERS 418 

XXIII  THE  CORPORATION  OF  THIS  PERIOD — 1886-99          •        •  433 

XXIV  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY— 1886-99  •        •  45§ 
XXV    QUESTIONS  OF  THE  FUTURE 477 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 
THE  OLD  BRICK  ROW  IN  1863    .          .'          Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

HAWLEY  OLMSTEAD,  LL.D.  .  .  .  8 

YALE  COLLEGE,  IN  1845 l8 

The  Old  President's  House  in  the  Foreground  at  the 
Right  of  the  Picture. 

PRESIDENT  TIMOTHY  DWIGHT,  1795-1817    .  .         40 

PRESIDENT  JEREMIAH  DAY          ...  .  .  .42 

PROFESSOR  ELEAZAR  T.  FITCH  ....          76 

PROFESSOR  CHAUNCEY  A.  GOODRICH    ...         86 
PROFESSOR  BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN         .  ..         .114 

PROFESSOR  JAMES  L.  KINGSLEY  .  .  .126 

PROFESSOR  DENISON  OLMSTED    .  .  .  .140 

PROFESSOR   WILLIAM   A.    LARNED         .  .  .152 

PROFESSOR  ANTHONY  D.  STANLEY      .  .  .178 

PRESIDENT  THEODORE  D.  WOOLSEY       .  .  .192 

From  a  Portrait  Painted  in  1844. 

PROFESSOR  NATHANIEL  W.  TAYLOR    .  .  .256 

PROFESSOR  JOSIAH  W.  GIBBS      ....       266 

OLD  DIVINITY    HALL            .  .  .  .  .280 

Erected  1836,  Removed  1870. 

DIVINITY  SCHOOL  BUILDINGS  .  .  .  .       290 

Erected  1870-74. 

PROFESSOR  SAMUEL  HARRIS  ....       294 

REV.  DR.  LEONARD  BACON  .  .  .  .      300 

PRESIDENT  THEODORE  D.  WOOLSEY  .  .  .      312 

REV.   WYLLYS   WARNER      .  .  .  .  .      314 

EDWARD  C.  IIERRICK            .  .    '  .  .  .316 

HENRY  C.   KINGSLEY            .  .  .  .   '•  ,      322 


LIST     OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING   PAGE 

REV.  DR.  JOEL  HAWES        .            *  .            .  .      326 

PRESIDENT  NOAH  PORTER            .  .  .       342 

PROFESSOR  THOMAS  A.  THACHER  ...  .      352 

PROFESSOR  JAMES   HADLEY         .  .            .  -354 

PROFESSOR  LEWIS  R.  PACKARD  .            .  .      356 

PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  A.  NORTON  .            .  .       358 

PRESIDENT  TIMOTHY  DWIGHT    .  .            .  .       370 

PROFESSOR  ELIAS  LOOMIS             .  .            .  .384 

PROFESSOR  JAMES  D.  DANA         .  .            .  .       392 

PROFESSOR  HUBERT  A.  NEWTON  .            .  .       396 

PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  D.  WHITNEY  .            .  .       402 
PROFESSOR  DANIEL  C.  EATON      ....      408 

PROFESSOR  OTHNIEL  C.  MARSH  .            .  .410 

PROFESSOR  CHESTER  S.  LYMAN  .            .  -414 

PROFESSOR  EDWARD  J.  PHELPS  .            .  .       424 

PROFESSOR  EDWARD  E.  SALISBURY  .            .  .428 

REV.  DR.  NATHANIEL  J.  BURTON  .            .  .       434 
HON.  WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS            ....      442 

OSBORN  HALL  AND  UNIVERSITY  BUILDINGS  .       460 

View  from  the  Corner  of  Chapel  and  College  Streets. 
VANDERBILT    HALL  .....       462 

Erected  1894. 
YALE  GYMNASIUM 4^4 

Erected  1891-92. 
WINCHESTER  HALL 468 

Erected  1892. 
CHITTENDEN  LIBRARY        .....      474 

Erected  1888. 
WELCH  HALL  .......       480 

Erected  1891. 
PHELPS  HALL  .  .  .  .  .  .      484 

Erected  1896. 

Pictures  of  a  few  of  the  buildings  erected  between  1887  and  1899 
are  inserted  as  indicating  the  changes  in  the  later  years. 


MEMORIES    OF    YALE    LIFE 

AND     MEN 


The  Hopkins  Grammar  School  and  Its  Rector 

ON  the  sixteenth  of  August,  1845,  m  company 
with  twelve  or  fifteen  of  my  associates,  who 
had  been  for  a  considerable  period  in  a  course 
of  study,  I  left  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School,  in  New 
Haven,  with  the  purpose  of  presenting  myself  for  ex- 
amination for  entrance  into  the  Freshman  class  of  Yale 
College.  The  Hopkins  School  is  among  the  oldest  of  its 
order  in  the  country,  having  been  founded  in  1660.  Its 
history  has  been  an  honorable  one,  and  the  list  of  its 
teachers  and  students  includes  a  large  number  of  men 
who  have  rendered  valuable  service  in  the  Church  and 
the  State.  But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  fact  connect- 
ed with  it  is  its  very  close  relation  to  the  University.  Not 
only  has  it  always  been  a  preparatory  school  in  which 
young  scholars  have  received  the  education  fitting  them 
for  the  college  years,  but  in  a  certain  sense  it  may  be 
properly  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  the  College  itself. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  most  prominent  leaders  in 
the  New  Haven  Colony,  even  from  the  early  days  after 
the  settlement,  had  the  earnest  desire  to  establish  within 
its  limits  a  collegiate  institution.  Their  definitely 
formed  purpose  answered  to  their  desire,  and  they 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

waited  only  for  the  opening  of  the  possibility  of  accom- 
plishing that  for  which  they  hoped.  The  time  of  this 
possibility  seemed  to  have  arrived  when  it  was  learned 
that  Gov.  Edward  Hopkins,  the  second  Governor  of  the 
Connecticut  Colony,  who  died  in  London  in  1657,  had 
made  by  his  will  a  bequest  sufficient  in  amount,  as  it  was 
thought,  for  the  first  foundation  of  the  school  which 
should  become  a  college.  Action  was  taken  accord- 
ingly, and  the  school  began  its  life.  The  anticipations 
of  the  founders  failed,  indeed,  to  be  realized,  because  of 
special  disappointing  circumstances,  and  of  difficulties 
which  need  not  be  recounted  here.  But  the  movement 
was  then  made,  which  renewed  the  courage  and  strength- 
ened the  purpose  of  the  men  of  the  era,  and  which  re- 
sulted, forty  years  later,  in  the  establishment  of  the 
higher  institution. 

It  will  not  be  regarded  as  inappropriate,  I  trust,  if  I 
begin  my  record  of  my  memories  with  an  allusion  to  the 
Hopkins  School,  and  with  a  few  words  respecting  the 
teacher  who,  from  1839  to  1849,  carried  forward  its 
work  of  instruction  and  devoted  himself  to  the  interests 
of  its  pupils.  We  who  were  under  his  care  during  some 
of  those  years  seemed  to  be  in  the  true  line  of  the  Yale 
inheritance.  The  old  principal  of  the  school  to  whom 
I  refer,  Hawley  Olmstead — old  he  then  appeared  to  our 
boyish  thought,  though  he  could  not  have  been  more 
than  about  fifty  years  of  age — had  been  engaged  in  the 
work  of  instruction  ever  since  his  graduation  from  the 
college,  in  1816.  He  was  a  man  of  the  earlier  type, 
wholly  given  to  his  professional  duty,  and  full  of  a  quiet 
yet  earnest  enthusiasm  for  it.  He  believed  most  thor- 
oughly in  the  advanced  school  education  of  the  time — 
that  education  the  end  and  aim  of  which  were  to  fit  the 
youth,  who  was  privileged  to  enjoy  its  opportunities,  for 
the  collegiate  studies  as  then  arranged  and  prescribed. 
Possibly  he  had  faith  in  the  usefulness  of  some  other 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

sorts  of  mental  training,  in  cases  where  boys  were  intend- 
ing to  follow  another  kind  of  life.  But  he  had  little 
interest  in  such  training.  It  was  of  a  lower  order,  and 
teachers  of  a  different  class  might  care  for  and  direct  it. 
For  him  the  college,  together  with  that  to  which  its 
course  of  instruction  was  designed  to  lead,  was  all  in  all. 
The  truly  educated  man  must  be  a  college  graduate. 
The  youth  who  desired  to  become  such  a  man  must,  of 
necessity,  pass  through  what  was  known  as  the  classical 
course,  and  must  take  this  as  opening  the  way  to  all  the 
higher  spheres  of  life.  To  prepare  boys  for  college  was, 
accordingly,  in  his  view,  the  one,  sole,  all-sufficient,  all- 
satisfying  work  for  a  schoolmaster  of  the  first  rank. 
No  more  important  and  no  more  honorable  work  could 
offer  itself  as  a  lifelong  employment  for  any  man,  for 
it  was  the  laying  of  the  foundation  on  which  everything 
pertaining  to  the  future  must  rest. 

With  reference  to  this  preparation,  the  matter  of 
single  and  supreme  moment  in  the  case  of  any  individual 
youth  was,  as  he  felt,  that  it  should  be  carried  forward 
to  completeness,  in  accordance  with  the  ideal  which  had 
been  establishing  itself  in  his  own  mind  during  the  thirty 
years  of  his  past  professional  career.  This  idea  was 
what  was  ever  uppermost  in  his  thought.  The  product 
of  the  school  manufactory  must  reach  the  perfect  stand- 
ard of  the  goods  to  be  manufactured.  The  excellent 
man  had,  also,  a  sentiment  of  loyalty  as  related  to  the 
institution  of  which  he  was  the  head,  and  in  connection 
with  it  he  had  the  desire  that  every  pupil  whom  he  sent 
forth  to  the  ordeal  of  the  college  examination  and  the 
college  life  should  prove  himself,  by  a  successful  meet- 
ing of  the  tests,  an  honor  to  the  school  and  its  teacher. 
This  sentiment,  however,  and  the  desire  which  accom- 
panied it,  were  altogether  secondary  to  the  ideal  that 
has  been  mentioned.  No  unworthy  pride  was  mingled 
with  his  feeling.  There  was  nev^er  any  wish  on  his 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

part  for  reputation,  or  for  public  confidence  or  esteem, 
other  than  that  which  should  come  to  him  as  the  result 
of  the  genuine  work  which  had  been  done  for  and  by 
his  students. 

With  such  ideas  and  ideals  in  his  mind,  it  was  not 
strange  that  the  question  of  time — how  much  of  it  might 
be  required  for  the  attainment  of  the  true  fitness — be- 
came to  his  thought,  even  more  and  more  as  the  years 
moved  onward,  one  of  comparatively  little  significance. 
The  impatient  boy,  as  he  was  growing  up  to  youth  and 
manhood,  might  easily  view  the  matter  in  quite  another 
light.  The  impatient  parents,  over-confident  with  ref- 
erence to  their  son's  powers  and  attainments,  might,  in 
many  cases,  sympathize  with  the  boyish  feeling.  But 
all  this  is  the  result — so  the  worthy  principal  said  to 
himself  and  to  them — of  a  want  of  true  understanding. 
The  boy,  he  said,  is  at  the  beginning.  He  cannot  appre- 
ciate what  he  will  see  and  feel  a  few  years  later,  and  will 
see  yet  more  distinctly  and  impressively  when  many 
years  have  passed.  On  some  occasion  long  after  this 
time,  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  is  said  to  have  re- 
marked to  a  friend:  "Hindsight  is  better  than  fore- 
sight." The  teacher  of  1845,  wh°  looked  back  over 
his  own  experience  even  to  1 8 1 6,  certainly  had  abundant 
opportunity  of  "hindsight,"  which  could  also  contribute 
its  aid  to  his  foresight.  The  backward  look  included 
in  its  survey  a  sufficiency  of  examples  within  his  own 
experience  which  might  be  used  effectively  to  the  end 
of  supporting  every  argument  that  he  could  desire  to 
present,  or  of  meeting  every  possible  objection  that  could 
be  urged,  whether  by  parents  or  children. 

Thus  he  was  ready  for  each  and  every  case.  How 
distinctly  I  recall  the  difference  of  opinion  between  him 
and  myself,  near  the  end  of  the  school  year  1844,  as 
to  the  advisability  of  my  entrance  upon  the  college  course 
at  that  time.  I  had  had  the  fixed  purpose  of  offering 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

myself  as  3  candidate  for  such  entrance  then,  and  all  my 
desires  were  to  this  end,  My  mother  and  father  had, 
also,  the  same  desire  and  purpose  on  my  behalf,  and  no 
thought  of  any  other  plan  had  been  in  our  minds.  But 
the  good  Dominie,  as  we  used  to  call  him — about  three 
weeks  before  the  school  year  was  to  close — without  my 
knowledge  presented  himself  to  my  father  for  a  conver- 
sation with  reference  to  his  son.  "My  dear  sir,"  he 
said  in  substance,  "your  boy  can  undoubtedly  pass  the 
college  examinations  at  this  time.  He  can,  without 
question,  maintain  a  good  standing  as  a  scholar  in  the 
college  years.  But  I  want  those  years  to  do  all  for  him 
that  is  within  their  possibility,  and  for  this  end  he  is 
not  yet  as  fully  prepared  as  he  ought  to  be.  I  shall  feel, 
if  he  enters  the  college  now,  that  I  have  not  done  my 
full  work  for  him,  and  that  he  has  not  done  his  full 
work  for  himself.  His  course  will  not  be  what  it  ought 
to  be.  He  needs  a  year  more  to  realize  my  ideal  for 
him.  I  beg  you,  for  his  own  sake,  to  let  him  remain 
with  me  for  the  additional  year." 

My  parents,  in  this  regard,  were  what  all  intelligent 
parents  ought  to  be.  They  did  not  decide  the  question 
for  me,  and  then  force  .me  by  authority  to  accept  their 
judgment.  They  laid  before  me  what  the  good  man  had 
said  to  them,  and  we  considered  together  his  views  and 
his  advice.  The  result  was — though  greatly  to  the  dis- 
appointment, at  the  time,  of  what  had  been  my  long- 
cherished  hopes — that  we  all  determined  to  be  guided 
by  his  counsel.  I  continued  in  the  school  for  the  addi- 
tional year  in  question,  and  at  its  close  I  went  forth 
with  the  Dominie's  most  hearty  benediction,  and,  I  may 
add,  with  a  satisfaction  in  his  decision  and  my  own 
which  has  never  left  my  mind  from  that  now  far-distant 
day  to  the  present  time. 

I  give  this  simple  story  of  my  personal  experience 
merely  as  an  illustration  of  my  early  teacher's  whole- 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

souled  devotion  to  his  work,  and  of  his  thought  of  school 
and  college  education  in  their  relation  to  each  other. 
He  was  an  enthusiast  in  all  this  matter.  He  was  a 
schoolmaster,  in  the  highest  and  best  sense  of  the  word, 
and  his  vision  was  wide  and  large  within  his  own  sphere 
of  education.  The  late  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  whose  apt- 
ness of  phraseology  was  only  equaled  by  his  peculiar 
and  remarkable  humor,  was  wont  to  say:  "Mr.  Olm- 
stead  seems  to  think  that  a  man  ought  to  spend  one  half 
of  his  life  in  getting  ready  for  college,  and  the  other  half 
in  going  through  college."  This  extravagant  expres- 
sion was  descriptive  of  the  man.  But  his  enthusiasm 
for  his  work,  the  singular  character  of  which  made  the 
descriptive  remark  possible,  was  a  sort  of  enthusiasm 
in  which  teachers  everywhere,  and  in  all  ages,  may  most 
fitly  pray  with  earnestness  to  have  a  share.  It  carried 
with  it  a  lifetime  blessing  for  every  open-minded  and 
open-hearted  pupil  who  had  the  privilege  of  sitting 
under  his  instruction. 

The  good  man  was  an  excellent  teacher  and  an  excel- 
lent disciplinarian.  Intelligence  and  wisdom  directed 
his  efforts  in  both  lines  of  his  work.  The  characteristics 
of  the  martinet  were  entirely  foreign  to  his  nature.  As 
related  to  the  matter  of  discipline,  he  had  a  full  under- 
standing of  the  difference  between  what  was  essential 
and  what  was  non-essential.  Estimating  the  two  at 
their  proper  worth,  he  insisted  on  the  one  and  was  leni- 
ent with  respect  to  the  other.  To  tie  himself  to  a  mi- 
nutely arranged  system,  or  to  bind  his  own  actions,  or 
those  of  his  pupils,  by  rules  which  could  not  be  modified, 
or,  if  need  were,  disregarded,  was  contradictory  to  his 
whole  theory  of  working.  Rules  should  be,  he  thought, 
as  few  as  possible,  and  should  be  applied  or  set  aside 
according  to  the  manifest  demands  of  particular  cases. 
The  dread  of  the  possible  influence  of  disregarding  them 
for  the  moment,  which  so  often  lays  hold  of  teachers  as 
6 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

well  as  other  men  in  official  positions,  and  which  rests 
as  a  heavy  burden  not  only  upon  themselves,  but  those 
who  are  responsible  to  them,  had  no  disturbing  force 
for  him.  It  found  no  entrance  for  itself  into  his  mind. 
"The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the 
Sabbath,"  was  a  word  which,  in  the  widest  and  most  far- 
reaching  application  of  its  fundamental  principle  beyond 
its  own  limits,  he  understood  and  followed.  He  was  a 
lover  of  boys,  and  he  knew  well  how  to  govern  boys. 

All  his  pupils  now  living  who  remember  the  old  days 
will  recall  to  mind  how  skillfully  he  guided  and  man- 
aged them.  He  had  no  law,  for  example — so  essential 
in  the  view  of  many  teachers — that  there  should  be  no 
whispering  among  the  boys  in  the  school-room  during 
the  school  hours.  But,  when  any  circle  of  boys  passed 
beyond  due  limits  in  this  matter,  his  eye  would  be  quickly 
upon  them.  After  a  little,  he  would  quietly  request  one 
of  them — the  one  whom  he  saw  to  be  the  leader  or  chief 
offender — to  come  to  his  desk,  and  in  an  undertone, 
unheard  by  others,  would  say:  "  I  notice,  William  [or 
John,  or  whoever  it  might  be],  that  there  is,  and  has 
been  of  late,  an  excess  of  whispering  in  your  corner  of 
the  room.  You  will,  no  doubt,  realize,  as  I  speak  of  it, 
that  it  tends  somewhat  to  disorder  and  to  prevent  others 
from  giving  their  attention  to  their  studies.  I  wish  you 
would  use  your  influence  with  those  who  sit  near  you  to 
put  a  stop  to  this  excess." 

All  was  so  kindly,  so  shrewdly  intelligent,  so  full  of 
evidence  to  the  boy's  mind  that  the  teacher  knew  him  to 
be  the  most  active  whisperer,  and  yet  so  adapted  to  put 
him  on  his  honor,  that  he  became  the  master's  man  at 
once,  and  the  whispering  circle  was  made  orderly  for  the 
future.  There  was  no  conflict,  no  imperiousness,  no 
show  of  authority  for  its  own  sake,  no  threatening  of 
dire  punishment.  The  boys  were  won  by  wisdom,  by 
supreme  tact,  by  an  appeal  to  their  better  nature,  by  the 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

exercise  of  that  rare  gift,  whose  value  is  inestimable — 
common  sense.  So  it  was  everywhere,  in  all  his  govern- 
ment and  discipline. 

So  it  was  also — according  to  the  measure  of  possi- 
bility— in  his  methods  and  work  of  instruction.  The 
custom,  which  prevailed  in  our  colleges  soon  after  this 
period,  of  requiring  students  to  memorize  their  Latin 
grammars,  so  that  they  could  repeat  the  pages  without 
questions — even  to  the  extent  of  giving  accurately  all  the 
minute  exceptions  in  prosody — would  have  been  abhor- 
rent to  his  thought  and  feeling;  as  it  ought  to  have  been, 
but  was  not,  to  those  who  followed  him.  He  was  a 
generous-minded  teacher.  He  knew  the  necessity  of 
grammar  as  related  to  language,  but  he  realized  the 
order  of  progress  and  the  subordination  of  the  lower  to 
the  higher.  It  was  an  era,  indeed,  when  the  idea  was 
so  widespread  and  all-controlling  that  the  teacher's  work 
was,  as  some  one  has  expressed  it,  to  bring  Cicero  into 
adjustment  with  Andrews  and  Stoddard's  Grammar, 
that  no  man,  however  free  or  gifted,  could  boldly  make 
it  his  great  effort  to  put  Andrews  and  Stoddard  in  accord 
with  Cicero.  But — within  the  limitations  of  the  time — 
he  elevated  the  mind  of  his  pupil,  and  prepared  him  to 
be  a  free  man  in  scholarship,  and  to  be  fit  for  the  work 
of  educated  life.  He  was  no  more  of  a  martinet  as  a 
teacher  than  he  was  as  a  disciplinarian. 

His  personality  was  somewhat  striking,  and  rather 
attractive  than  otherwise.  He  was  of  good,  though 
moderate  height,  and  was  fleshy  even  to  corpulence, 
weighing  probably  from  two  hundred  to  two  hundred 
and  twenty  pounds.  He  had  a  large  head,  which  gave 
the  impression  of  intelligence  and  thoughtfulness.  His 
face  was  unusually  florid,  while  his  hands  were  exceed- 
ingly white  and  delicate,  and  the  boys  were  wont  to  think 
that  his  one  harmless  and  pleasant  vanity  was  exhibited 
in  the  frequent — indeed,  it  seemed  almost  constant — 
8 


HAWLEY  OLMSTEAD 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

gentle  movement  of  his  hands  across  his  face,  ever  bring- 
ing out  the  contrast.  His  hair  and  whiskers,  which  were 
always  close-cut,  were  perfectly  white,  so  that  he  seemed 
older,  probably,  to  all  who  met  him  than  he  really  was. 
But,  however,  this  may  have  been — to  the  boys'  minds, 
in  that  day  even  more  truly  if  possible  than  at  present, 
the  gray-haired  man  of  fifty  appeared  to  be  advanced 
beyond  any  reasonable  counting  of  years.  They  called 
him  the  "Old  Dominie,"  and  the  former  of  the  two 
words  had  for  them  as  much  emphasis  and  truth  as  the 
latter.  They  all  loved  and  honored  him,  and  the  title 
which  they  gave  him  was  one  of  sincere  affection  and 
regard. 

After  a  few  years  more  of  further  service,  he  retired 
from  his  work,  passing  his  office  in  the  school  into  the 
hands  of  his  son.  In  the  year  1862,  the  college  con- 
ferred upon  him,  in  view  of  his  eminent  and  long-con- 
tinued service  in  the  cause  of  education,  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws= — an  honor  which  all  who  knew  him 
may  well  have  felt  to  be  worthily  bestowed.  When 
he  reached  the  age  of  seventy,  he  said  to  a  friend,  who 
congratulated  him  with  birthday  greetings  and  with  best 
wishes  for  future  years:  "I  have  come  now  to  the 
limit  of  threescore  and  ten.  Henceforth  I  shall  regard 
myself  as  a  minute  man,  holding  myself  ready  at  a 
moment's  warning."  Time  passed  on  and  health  con- 
tinued until,  at  seventy-five,  the  prophetic  word,  as  it 
almost  seemed,  was  fulfilled.  A  little  circle  of  gentle- 
men, of  advanced  age  and  retired  from  active  service, 
who  were  wont  to  meet  together  weekly  for  conversation 
and  discussion,  had  assembled,  on  a  December  day  in 
1868,  at  his  house,  and  in  his  turn  he  was  taking  part  in 
the  friendly  debate,  when  suddenly  the  summons  came, 
and  in  a  moment  his  spirit  had  entered  within  the  veil. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  last  college  class  which 
graduated  under  the  administration  of  the  first  President 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Dwight,  and  was  its  valedictorian.  It  is  pleasant  to 
me  to  place  these  few  words  in  commemoration  of  him 
on  these  pages,  and  to  see  in  what  he  did  for  me  a 
uniting  link,  as  it  were,  between  myself  and  the  life  and 
influence  of  that  honored  ancestor. 


II 

Beginnings  of  College  Life 

THE  college  entrance  examinations,  at  that  time, 
were  held  on  the  days  immediately  preceding 
Commencement,  and  in  the  galleries  of  the 
Chapel  of  the  period.  This  building  was  used  for  the 
religious  services  of  the  institution  from  the  date  of  its 
erection,  in  1824,  until  the  Battell  Chapel  was  com- 
pleted, in  1876.  From  that  time  onward  until  1896, 
when  it  was  taken  down,  it  was  commonly  called,  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  more  recent  and  larger  edifice,  the  Old 
Chapel.  By  this  name  it  was  known  to  most  of  the 
graduates  of  the  last  quarter  of  the  century.  To  the 
students  of  to-day  it  is,  like  South  College  or  the  Athe- 
naeum, a  thing  altogether  of  the  past.  What  the  build- 
ing was,  in  its  interior,  in  1845,  'IS  beyond  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  larger  portion  of  the  living  graduates.  The 
pulpit  wras  of  the  old-fashioned  order,  raised  far  above 
the  pews  and  almost  on  a  level  with  the  galleries.  The 
great  pillars,  which  supported  the  galleries  and  the 
ceiling,  were  of  so  formidable  a  character  that  each  one 
shut  out  the  preacher  from  the  view  of  several  persons 
whose  seats  happened  to  be  in  its  vicinity.  The  seats 
themselves  had  straight  backs,  with  a  projecting  molding 
at  the  top — projecting  not  only  backwards,  but  forwards 
so  as  to  strike  the  occupants  between  the  shoulders;  a 
device  which  some  of  the  students,  no  doubt,  thought 
was  intended  to  produce  wakefulness,  but  which  was  not 
always  successful  in  effecting  its  purpose.  At  the  sides 
of  the  pulpit,  and  also  near  the  middle  of  the  side  walls 
of  the  building,  there  were  elevated  seats  or  boxes — 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

those  near  the  pulpit  being  almost  on  a  level  with  the 
pulpit  itself — which  were  assigned  to  the  younger  offi- 
cers or  tutors,  and  from  which  they  could  take  a  wide 
observation  of  the  student  audience.  The  building  was 
uniformly  cold  in  winter  and  hot  in  summer,  with  no 
provision  for  ventilation.  It  would  be  regarded  as  for- 
bidding, not  to  say  dreary,  by  the  more  luxurious  youth 
of  the  present  generation.  Even  to  the  young  men  of 
that  era — an  era  which  some  of  the  graduates,  who  think 
they  can  recall  and  describe  it,  characterize  as  one  of 
"  plain  living  and  high  thinking  " — it  was  hardly  at- 
tractive or  winsome. 

I  doubt  whether  "  plain  living,"  in  any  line  in  which 
the  plainness  is  extreme,  is  ever  as  fully  satisfying  even 
to  a  "  high  thinker  "  in  his  youth,  as  it  sometimes  seems 
to  him  to  have  been  when  he  looks  back  from  the  stand- 
point of  his  later  age,  and  especially  when  he  is  dis- 
coursing about  his  own  contemporaries  in  their  earlier 
days,  as  contrasted  with  his  son's  in  theirs.  My  excellent 
father,  as  I  remember,  used  to  animadvert  upon,  and  in 
a  sort  of  self-comforting  way  grieve  over,  the  degeneracy 
of  the  times  when  I  was  a  young  man,  as  compared  with 
those  when  he  was  a  youth.  But  I  was  wont  to  try  to 
encourage  him  with  the  consolatory  thought  that,  how- 
ever much  things  had  changed  for  the  worse  between  his 
early  years  and  his  later  ones,  they  were  doubtless  much 
better  in  his  later  years  than  they  would  be  in  mine. 
But  somehow  he  was  not  consoled.  As  for  myself,  the 
result  was  that  I  was  led  to  question  in  my  own  mind 
whether  there  was  quite  as  much  high  thinking  in  the 
old  time  as  there  was  plain  living — and  whether  what 
there  was  of  the  former  was  so  directly  the  result  of  the 
latter  as  it  is  sometimes  supposed  to  have  been. 

All  this,  however,  is  leading  us  away  from  the 
entrance  examinations.  In  company  with  my  associates 
I  found  my  place  in  the  Old  Chapel  gallery,  and  waited 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

anxiously  for  the  tutors  and  processors.  They  presented 
themselves  in  due  season — not  one  or  two  only,  with 
unmoved  countenance,  laying  before  me  printed  ques- 
tions to  be  answered  in  writing,  and  to  be  gathered  up 
silently  and  fatefully  after  an  hour's  work  on  my  part; 
and  this  to  be  repeated  for  two  long  days  or  more — 
but  all  of  them  in  succession,  each  having  his  inquiries 
in  his  own  department  to  offer  me  orally,  and  each  put- 
ting himself  by  the  living  voice  into  some  personal 
connection  with  me  as  an  individual.  It  was  an  ordeal. 
It  was  a  serious  hour.  But,  when  we  separated,  we  had 
spoken  with  each  other  and  knew  something  about  each 
other.  I  was  not  a  mere  number,  and  the  man  whom 
I  had  met  was  not  a  mere  reader  of  a  paper,  with  the 
power  of  marking  according  to  a  certain  standard — his 
own  standard — what  he  read. 

The  old  system  could  hardly  be  re-established  now, 
even  if  its  restoration  were  desirable.  There  were  by  no 
means  so  many  subjects,  in  those  days,  of  which  the 
student's  knowledge  must  be  tested.  There  were,  also, 
not  more  than  one-fourth,  or  one-fifth,  as  many  candi- 
dates presenting  themselves  for  the  examinations. 
Moreover,  neither  the  teachers  nor  the  pupils  had  come 
under  the  influence  of  what  are  now  styled  "  modern 
methods;  "  and  the  science  of  pedagogy,  at  present  com- 
ing into  so  much  prominence  in  the  educational  sphere, 
was  a  thing,  as  it  were,  wholly  of  the  future.  One  could, 
of  course,  do  many  things  in  such  an  unsystematic  age, 
which  would  disturb  the  sensitive  mind  in  this  later  era, 
when  conventions  of  teachers  and  essays  of  authorities 
have  discussed  philosophically  the  intellect  of  the  child 
and  the  youth,  and  have  reached  certain  seemingly  per- 
manent conclusions — which  are,  however,  to  be  sub- 
mitted for  final  adjustment  to  the  next  annual  conven- 
tion. But  whether  it  be  possible,  or  not,  to  return  to 
the  old  order  of  things,  there  was,  at  least,  the  one 

13 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

happy  circumstance  connected  with  it  to  which  allusion 
has  been  made.  The  examiners  and  examined  met  each 
other  as  living  persons,  and  the  former  were  able  to  get 
some  more  adequate  impression  of  the  personality  and 
powers  of  the  latter  than  it  is  possible  to  gain  from  the 
mere  reading  of  written  answers  to  printed  questions. 
We  boys  of  1845  nacl  this  good  fortune,  if  we  had  no 
other.  I  am  glad — in  this  view  of  the  matter — that  I 
was  one  of  them. 

The  College  Catalogue  for  that  year  had  on  one  of 
its  pages  the  following  statement:  "  Candidates  for  ad- 
mission to  the  Freshman  Class  are  examined  in  Cicero's 
Select  Orations,  the  whole  of  Virgil,  Sallust,  Jacobs', 
Colton's,  or  Felton's  Greek  Reader,  the  first  three  books 
of  Xenophon's  Anabasis,  Andrews  and  Stoddard's  Latin 
Grammar,  Goodrich's  or  Sophocles'  Greek  Grammar, 
Andrews'  Latin  Exercises,  Arithmetic,  English  Gram- 
mar, and  Geography;  and  hereafter,  they  will  be  ex- 
amined also  in  the  part  of  Day's  Algebra  preceding 
Quadratic  Equations."  To  this  paragraph  a  note  was 
added,  as  follows: 

"  The  deficiency  of  most  candidates  for  admission, 
in  the  Latin  and  Greek  Grammars,  Latin  Prosody  and 
Composition,  Geography,  and  the  theoretical  part  of 
Arithmetic,  makes  it  necessary  to  remark,  that  the  ex- 
amination in  these  subjects  will  be  strict  and  compre- 
hensive." 

This  note,  as  I  record  it,  brings  to  my  mind  certain 
pleasant  memories  and  thoughts;  among  the  thoughts, 
these:  that  arithmetic  is  now  remanded  wholly  to  the 
school  years  and  examinations;  and  that  Latin  composi- 
tion is  not  so  formidable  a  matter  as  it  once  was, — and 
among  the  memories,  this:  that,  after  I  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Faculty,  at  a  meeting  of  that  body  on  one 
occasion  the  elder  Professor  Silliman,  who  always  ex- 
amined the  candidates  in  geography,  complained  with 

14 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

much  emphasis  of  the  deficiency  of  knowledge  on  their 
part,  and  by  way  of  illustrative  example,  said:  "  I  was 
asking  one  of  them,  'Who  founded  St.  Petersburg?' 
and  he  answered,  '  St.  Peter.'  "  It  occurred  to  me,  at 
the  time,  that  neither  the  founder  of  the  city  nor  the 
saint  belonged  within  the  sphere  of  geography;  and  the 
Freshman  candidate  might  have  given  the  professor  this 
answer. 

But,  apart  from  the  appended  note,  an  oral  examina- 
tion on  the  subjects  specified  in  the  old  catalogue,  and 
on  these  subjects  only — the  part  of  Day's  Algebra  pre- 
ceding Quadratic  Equations  being  beyond  the  present 
requirements,  and  simply  threatened  for  the  future — 
would,  no  doubt,  if  proposed  to  the  candidate  of  to-day, 
seem  a  somewhat  mild  and  tame  affair.  It  should  be 
remembered,  however,  that  the  curriculum  of  the  schools 
was  not  then  what  it  now  is,  and  that  the  sphere  of 
college  studies  was  much  more  limited,  both  with  refer- 
ence to  departments  of  study  and  to  individual  studies. 
We  who  were  then  candidates  for  entrance  trembled,  as 
the  young  applicant  now  does  for  himself,  lest  we  might 
not  be  able  to  command  at  the  moment  what,  in  other 
more  favored  hours,  we  had  known.  The  scene,  also, 
was  as  strange  and  solemn  to  us,  as  it  is  to  the  boy  of 
this  later  time.  The  professors  and  tutors  were  almost, 
if  not  quite,  as  impressive  and  even  appalling;  with 
somewhat,  as  we  thought,  of  the  character  of  the  cloud- 
compelling  Zeus.  The  possibility  and  danger  of  being 
conditioned  heavily,  or  of  meeting  the  yet  more  terrible 
fate  of  hopeless  rejection,  were  as  present  and  constant 
in  our  thoughts  throughout  the  ordeal.  The  suspense 
and  the  nervous  strain,  which  continued  until  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  final  decision  came,  were  as  great. 
We  were  more  cheerful  when  the  hours  were  ended 
than  we  were  when  they  began — that  is  to  say,  those 
of  us  were  so,  to  whom  the  announcement  of  success  was 

15 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

made  at  the  end,  and  in  whose  minds  the  pleasing  con- 
sciousness arose  that  we  were  actually  members  of  the 
class  of  1 849.  I  was  myself  one  of  these  fortunate  ones. 
The  good  Dominie's  work  for  me  had  had  its  appro- 
priate and  promised  result.  Possibly,  the  old  grand- 
father's gift  to  me  in  the  line  of  inheritance  had  wrought 
in  harmony  with  the  dominie's  efforts.  Possibly,  I  had 
had  some  part  in  the  matter  myself.  It  was  of  little 
moment  to  me  then,  how  it  had  come  to  pass.  The  one, 
great,  solid  fact  was,  that  I  was  no  longer  a  candidate, 
but  a  Freshman;  and  I  was  satisfied.  I  seemed  to  my- 
self older  and  stronger  than  ever  before — with  the 
first  great  success  secured — with  the  future  opening 
brightly  in  its  hope  and  promise. 

This  is  a  common  and  familiar  story — answering  to 
the  experience  of  how  many  since  that  earlier  time — 
but  its  significance  is  unfolded  more  and  more  fully  as 
we  pass  onward  through  our  life.  I  am  still  learning 
what  it  had  within  itself  for  me. 

The  summer  vacation,  at  that  period,  continued  for 
only  six  weeks — Commencement  Day  being  the  third 
Thursday  of  August,  and  the  autumn  term  beginning 
about  the  twenty-eighth  of  September.  It  was  not  then 
regarded  as  necessary  for  the  health  of  young  people 
that  they  should  finish  their  yearly  studies  before  the  hot 
weather  arrived,  or  to  that  of  older  persons,  that  they 
should  spend  the  warm  season  among  the  hills  or  by  the 
seaside.  Indeed,  for  the  ordinary  citizen,  vacations  were 
not  looked  upon  as  an  essential  part  of  life.  They  were, 
in  a  certain  measure,  the  privilege  of  boys  and  of  their 
teachers — the  teachers  having  the  enjoyment  granted 
them  because  it  was  deemed  needful  that  the  boys  should 
have  it.  Why  it  was  universally  considered  so  necessary 
for  the  boys,  we  young  fellows  never  put  ourselves  to 
the  task  of  finding  out.  Possibly,  the  task  might  have 
16 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

been  fruitless,  if  it  had  been  undertaken.  We  accepted 
the  fact,  and,  raising  no  troublesome  inquiries,  we 
felicitated  ourselves  on  the  good  fortune  which  the  world 
had  consented  to  give  us.  It  is  half  a  century  since  then 
— and  I  may  say,  in  passing,  that  I  have  in  all  the  years 
followed  the  wise  course  of  my  boyhood  and  have  ever 
avoided  the  question  which  I  then  put  aside — adopting 
in  this  regard  the  comforting  theory  that  "  what  is,  is 
right,  and  what  is  right  is  best."  My  opinion  is,  how- 
ever, though  I  would  not  contend  for  it  in  argument, 
that  some  gentle  saint  of  wide-reaching  influence  in  a 
far  distant  age — some  saint  whose  saintliness  manifested 
itself  largely  (as  saintliness  always  should)  in  tender- 
hearted affection  for  boys  and  girls — impressed  upon 
the  rest  of  the  saintly  company  of  his  era  the  force  of 
the  Old  Testament  words,  "  Much  study  is  a  weariness 
to  the  flesh;  "  and  so  the  resting-time  was  made  to  fol- 
low the  working-time.  If  this  be  the  true  view  of  the 
matter,  he  was  a  blessed  saint,  worthy  of  an  honorable 
place  in  the  sacred  catalogue;  and  like  many  of  his  fel- 
lows, he  wrought  better  even  than  he  knew,  for  what 
he  gave  to  the  young  scholars  proved  to  be  a  yet  greater 
gift  to  the  old  teachers.  The  scholar  fancies,  in  his  boy- 
hood years,  that  he  knows  to  the  utmost  the  blessing  of 
vacation  time.  But  we  may  pity  his  ignorance.  It  is 
the  teacher  who  has  the  full  understanding,  and  he  is  the 
true  and  appreciative  worshiper  of  the  saint.  And  now, 
in  the  new  age,  the  saint's  gift  is  going  out  to  all,  both 
young  and  old,  and  life  is  growing  richer  and  happier, 
as  work  and  play  move  on  together  after  a  reasonable 
manner. 

On  a  beautiful  September  day,  late  in  the  month,  the 
resting  season  came  to  its  end,  and  the  college  community 
assembled  for  the  new  academic  year.  To  us  of  the 
entering  class  everything  was  strange  and  everything 

17 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

was  full  of  interest.  We  were  ourselves  strangers  to 
one  another,  but  we  discovered  ourselves  to  be  objects 
of  special  thought  on  the  part  of  the  rest  of  the  student 
body.  It  is  scarcely  necessary,  however,  to  mention  this. 
It  will  be  understood  of  itself.  Our  first  college  exer- 
cise, which  we  were  called  to  attend,  was  morning 
prayers  in  the  Chapel — then  followed,  at  appointed 
hours,  the  three  regular  recitations  in  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Mathematics — and  the  day  closed  with  evening  prayers. 
Our  Freshman  year  fell  within  the  period  of  the  admin- 
istration of  President  Day.  Until  the  end  of  his  official 
term,  the  hour  for  morning  prayers  in  the  autumn  and 
winter  sessions  was  six  o'clock,  and  in  the  summer  it  was 
five  o'clock.  Dr.  Woolsey,  on  his  accession  to  the  Presi- 
dency at  the  beginning  of  our  Sophomore  year,  made  the 
time  half  an  hour  later,  and  this  arrangement  continued 
until  1857  or  1858.  The  first  recitation  of  the  day 
followed  immediately  after  prayers,  and  the  breakfast 
hour  followed  this.  I  have  spoken  of  the  Old  Chapel 
as  dreary — taking  the  standpoint  of  the  student  of  to- 
day. On  a  winter's  morning,  when  we  had  been  roused 
from  the  sweet  slumber  of  boyhood  by  the  sharp  tones 
of  the  college  bell  or  the  sharper  ring  of  the  alarm-clock 
in  our  rooms,  and  had  made  our  way  at  six  o'clock,  per- 
chance through  a  heavy  snowstorm,  to  the  Chapel  doors, 
it  seemed  dreary  even  to  our  less  luxurious  tastes,  and 
to  our  eyes  less  accustomed  to  the  beauty  of  architecture. 
The  Seniors,  indeed,  were  there;  or  some  of  them, 
for,  as  they  had  no  early  morning  recitation  in  that 
year,  and  as  the  kindly  President  was  lenient  in  the 
matter  of  excuses,  they  indulged  themselves  in  absences 
to  a  considerable  extent.  The  Seniors  were  there;  and 
I  may  say  on  their  behalf  that,  though  I  have  seen  more 
than  fifty  classes  since  that  time,  I  have  never  looked 
upon  so  impressive  and  dignified  a  body  of  men  as  they 
then  seemed  to  me  to  be.  The  tutors  were  there  also, 
18 


1-1  -5 

1-1    13 

to  2 
9  R 
3. 1 

SO 
So 

w  § 
>-j  „ 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

all  of  them,  and  the  venerable  President  likewise.  How 
venerable  he  looked — almost  as  if  his  namesake  Jere- 
miah, the  Prophet  of  the  Old  Testament,  had  returned 
to  earth  to  offer  his  prayer  and  give  his  benediction  in 
paternal  love  for  the  young  students  of  the  present.  But 
it  was  more  than  the  Seniors,  or  the  tutors,  or  the  Presi- 
dent himself  could  do,  to  make  the  building  seem  cheer- 
ful, or  attractive,  or  even  solemn,  unless  with  the  solemn- 
ity of  a  winter  wilderness.  There  was  no  organ  in  the 
building,  and,  at  the  morning  service,  no  singing.  One 
of  the  tutors  read  a  passage  from  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  President  offered  prayer.  The  Freshmen  had  their 
seats  assigned  them  in  the  pews  in  the  rear  of  the  Seniors 
and  Juniors — the  Seniors  occupying  the  front  portion  of 
the  middle  aisle,  and  the  Juniors  one  of  the  side  aisles. 
Immediately  upon  the  close  of  the  service,  the  Freshmen 
were  expected  to  leave  the  building,  without  waiting  for 
any  of  the  officers.  The  President  slowly  descended  the 
pulpit  stairs,  and  passing  down  the  center  aisle,  with 
measured  step  and  the  dignity  characteristic  of  the 
earlier  generation,  he  bowed  to  the  Seniors,  and  they 
respectfully  returned  his  salutation,  according  to  the 
custom  which  had  its  origin  in  the  previous  century,  and 
which  still  continues  with  the  hearty  approval  of  all  Yale 
men. 

The  President  had  his  residence  on  the  college 
grounds,  just  southward  of  the  present  Battell  Chapel. 
He  was  methodical  and  punctual  by  nature,  as  well  as  by 
long-continued  practice.  He  retired  every  night  at  nine 
o'clock,  and  rose  before  six  in  the  morning.  Like  most 
New  England  men  who  were  born  as  early  as  1773,  he 
deemed  the  habit  of  early  rising  essential  to  the  best  use 
of  life's  powers,  and  to  the  complete  fulfillment  of  life's 
duties.  Like  most  of  his  contemporaries,  also,  he 
thought  that  the  best  and,  indeed,  the  only  way  of 
establishing  this  habit  for  the  lifetime  was  to  compel  the 

19 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

growing  boy,  by  rules  and  penalties,  to  rise  at  six  or  five 
o'clock.  He  had,  moreover,  the  confidence  common  to 
his  contemporaries,  that,  if  the  boy  was  forcibly  sub- 
jected to  this  training  in  his  boyhood,  he  would  continue 
the  habit  ever  afterwards. 

President  Day  was  regarded  by  all  his  older  asso- 
ciates in  the  Faculty  as  one  of  the  wisest  men  that  ever 
lived.  So  thoroughly  established  was  this  opinion  re- 
specting him  that  it  was  passed  over  to  the  next  genera- 
tion, and  with  such  force  and  emphasis  that  the  sugges- 
tion of  what  he  thought  came  to  be  considered,  often- 
times, a  sufficient  settlement  of  questions  in  dispute.  I 
remember  having  a  discussion  one  day  in  the  college 
treasurer's  office,  some  twenty-five  years  after  my  gradu- 
ation and  when  the  good  man  had  passed  away  from  the 
world,  on  the  comparative  value  of  corner  lots  in  a  city 
and  lots  not  thus  situated.  There  was  an  exchange  of 
views  for  a  time.  Arguments  were  presented  on  both 
sides,  and  the  conversation  became  quite  animated.  But, 
suddenly,  my  friend,  who  was  opposing  my  view, 
abruptly  closed  the  talk,  as  if  nothing  further  could  be 
urged  by  me  or  any  one,  with  the  words:  "  President 
Day  regarded  the  corner  lot  as  the  less  valuable  of  the 
two."  I  shall  never  forget  the  impression  of  that  hour. 
I  felt  that  there  was  a  difference  between  the  President 
and  myself — and  that  a  new  age  was  beginning. 

The  spirit  of  the  new  age  was  not  limited,  however, 
in  its  manifestation  of  itself,  to  the  matter  of  corner 
lots.  It  stirred  the  thought  and  life  within  me — and  I 
think  I  may  speak  of  my  classmates  as  being  like  my- 
self in  this  regard — with  reference  to  the  matter  of  early 
rising,  and  the  opinions  of  the  time  respecting  it.  The 
plan  and  theory  had  worked  admirably  in  the  case  of  the 
President.  The  rules  of  earlier  life  had  wrought  for 
him  what  were  regarded  as  their  predestined  and  natu- 
ral results.  The  same  thing  had  been  true  of  many 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

other  graduates  of  the  college  in  the  bygone  years.  But 
for  us  boys  of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  how 
was  it?  Somehow,  we  were  different  from  the  fathers 
and  grandfathers,  whom  we  saw,  or  of  whom  we  heard. 
They  lamented  the  difference — those  of  them  who 
talked  with  us.  We  lamented  it  also,  sometimes,  at  the 
early  morning  hour.  But  the  system  and  discipline, 
which  had  been  so  good  in  the  past,  did  not  exhibit  their 
excellent  results  in  our  experience.  I  fear  that  in  the 
case  of  most  of  our  number  the  habit,  forced  on  us  for 
our  well-being  in  the  college  years,  lost  its  hold  upon  the 
life  when  we  became  masters  of  ourselves. 

Those  recitations  before  breakfast  showed,  perhaps, 
more  of  the  influence  of  the  early  rising,  than  the  habit- 
forming  tendency  in  the  individual  student  did.  The 
recitation  rooms  for  the  Freshmen  were  located  in  the 
Athenaeum,  which  stood  just  south  of  South  Middle 
College.  If  the  Chapel  was  dreary  before  sunrise  on  a 
winter  day,  these  rooms  were  yet  more  so.  They  were 
not  cold,  however,  as  the  Chapel  often  was.  They  were 
occupied,  as  study  apartments  and  living  rooms,  by  three 
or  four  of  the  students  of  limited  means,  to  whom  the 
charges  for  rent  were  remitted  as  a  compensation  for  the 
care  which  they  gave  to  them.  These  students  kept  the 
fires  in  the  Olmsted's  stoves — the  common  heating  ap- 
paratus of  the  time — vigorously  burning;  and,  as  they 
cooked  their  food  in  the  rooms,  the  heat  and  the  odors 
were  equally  impressive  to  the  classmates  who  entered 
the  doors  at  the  recitation  hours.  An  instructor's  desk, 
or  tutor's  box  as  it  was  called,  was  in  one  of  the  corners 
of  each  of  the  rooms,  and  the  seats  for  the  students  were 
oak  boards,  painted  white,  extending  along  the  walls 
which  furnished  the  only  back  against  which  one  could 
lean.  The  center  of  each  room  was  vacant,  except  in 
certain  cases,  where  three  or  four  chairs,  or  one  or  two 
extra  benches,  were  found  necessary  because  the  numbers 

21 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

were  so  large  that  all  could  not  otherwise  be  provided 
for. 

In  these  rooms  we  began  to  translate  Livy,  and  the 
Odyssey  of  Homer,  and  to  form  the  acquaintance  of 
Day's  Algebra.  We  translated  the  passages  assigned  us. 
We  answered,  according  to  our  ability,  the  mathematical 
or  other  questions  that  were  put  to  us  by  the  instructors. 
It  was  useful  work.  It  was  work  which  had  a  tendency 
to  strengthen  our  minds.  It  had  its  bearing  on  the  fu- 
ture. But  it  was  not  very  stimulating,  or  calculated 
greatly  to  awaken  enthusiasm.  It  limited  itself  to  the 
means,  if  I  may  so  say,  instead  of  reaching  out  towards 
the  end.  So  it  appears  to  us  now,  as  we  look  backward. 
.The  memorizing  of  rules  and  the  solving  of  problems 
had  the  largest  place  for  themselves — even,  as  it  were, 
to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else.  The  vocabulary  of 
an  ancient  language,  or  the  element  in  mathematics 
which  makes  the  study  interesting  and  attractive — the 
things  that  render  knowledge  abiding  for  the  future 
years — had  comparatively  little  attention.  WThat  was 
called  mental  discipline  was  the  one  end  in  view — the 
matter  of  all  importance  in  the  minds  of  educators,  as 
well  as  in  the  system  which  they  believed  in,  and  to  the 
full  development  of  which  they  devoted  themselves. 

I  would  not  unduly  blame  the  system  or  the  teachers. 
The  learned  world  had  established  the  one,  and  had 
summoned  the  others  to  work  in  accordance  with  it. 
Moreover,  the  two  together  did  us  good.  Those  among 
us  who  yielded  themselves  to  the  best  influence,  and 
faithfully  fulfilled  the  duties  imposed  upon  them,  grew 
strong  and  vigorous  in  their  intellectual  powers.  They 
gained  somewhat  of  a  well-rounded  education.  They 
secured  the  discipline  of  mind  which  prepared  them  for 
whatever  they  might  be  called  to  do  in  subsequent  years. 
They  fitted  themselves  to  be  the  men  of  our  generation. 
It  was  no  weak,  second-rate,  half-useless  education,  that 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

was  offered  us.  If  pedagogical  science  and  systems  or 
endlessly  discussed  methods,  or  the  bringing  up  of  the 
youth  from  his  earliest  childhood  under  the  hourly  ap- 
plication of  philosophically  devised  and  adjusted  rules, 
reaching  into  all  minuteness,  can  give  better  results,  the 
men  of  the  next  half  century  will  be  fortunate  indeed. 
I  would  not  blame  the  old  system  unduly,  or  reproach 
the  men  who  wrought  under  it.  But  it,  and  they  as  in- 
fluenced by  it,  had  their  weaknesses.  The  work  required 
and  performed  was  not  rendered  attractive  and  inspiring 
in  the  measure  which  could  have  been  desired.  It  was, 
if  the  comparison  may  be  allowed,  too  much  like  the  old 
recitation  rooms  or  the  old  buildings  in  their  contrast 
with  those  of  the  more  recent  time.  The  system  was 
too  exclusively  devoted  to  mind-building.  It  was  pro- 
portionately careless  respecting  culture.  Of  course,  in 
those  old  Freshman  recitation  rooms — and  in  all  Fresh- 
man recitation  rooms  in  any  era — mind-building  is  the 
first  thing  to  be  thought  of  and  aimed  at.  It  is,  in  the 
comprehensive  sense  of  the  word,  the  fundamental  and 
essential,  the  all-important  and  final  thing,  to  be  kept  in 
view  in  all  the  educational  years.  But  the  mind  can  be 
built  out,  as  well  as  built  up.  It  can  be  made  rich,  as 
truly  as  it  can  be  made  strong.  It  can  be  awakened  to 
enthusiasm,  and  not  merely  moved  to  earnest  and  heroic 
effort.  And  the  beginnings  of  inspiration  and  enthusi- 
asm can  be  cared  for  in  the  early  beginnings  of  the 
work. 


Ill 

Our  Earliest  College  Teachers,  1845-46 — The  Instruc- 
tion and  Discipline  of  that  Period 

THE  Faculty  of  the  Academical  Department,  at 
that  time — the  Scientific  Department  was  not 
yet  established — consisted  of  the  President,  six 
professors,  one  assistant  professor,  and  seven  tutors. 
The  Freshman  class  was  placed  under  the  charge  of 
the  younger  officers,  and,  until  about  the  time  of  our 
entrance  upon  the  course  of  study,  there  were  no  young 
officers  except  the  tutors.  In  the  summer  of  1845,  Mr. 
Thomas  A.  Thacher,  who  had,  after  four  years  of  ac- 
ceptable service  in  a  tutorship,  been  appointed,  in  1842, 
an  assistant  professor  of  Latin,  returned  from  a  pro- 
longed course  of  study  in  Europe  for  the  purpose  of 
resuming  his  work  of  instruction  in  the  college.  The 
privilege  of  being  under  his  guidance  in  his  own  depart- 
ment of  study  was  granted  to  my  classmates  and  myself, 
and  we  were  regarded  as  peculiarly  fortunate  on  this 
account.  Our  other  instructors  were  Mr.  Samuel  Brace 
and  Mr.  Joseph  Emerson — the  former  in  the  Greek 
department,  and  the  latter  in  mathematics.  Both  of  them 
were  graduates  of  the  class  of  1841,  and  they  had  al- 
ready held  the  tutorial  office  for  a  year.  They  were, 
as  I  suppose,  about  twenty-five  years  of  age.  Mr. 
Thacher,  the  assistant  professor,  was  just  thirty.  I  was 
myself  sixteen,  and  was  one  of  the  younger  members  of 
the  class.  I  can  well  remember  that  Messrs.  Brace  and 
Emerson  had,  to  my  eye,  a  look  of  maturity  and  serious- 
ness, not  to  say  dignity,  which  seemed  to  be  fitly  char- 
acteristic of  men  quite  removed  from  our  period  of  life 
24 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

and  quite  elevated  above  our  position.  The  fact  that 
there  were  several  members  of  the  class  nearly  as  old 
as  they  were,  and  one  who  was  even  older,  had  no  influ- 
ence upon  my  mind  in  its  judgment  respecting  them. 
They  were  at  a  remote  distance  beyond  the  Seniors,  who 
were  very  far  removed  from  ourselves.  They  had  the 
weight  and  authority  of  their  official  position.  They 
were  enrolled  in  the  Faculty.  But,  when  we  met  Mr. 
Thacher  in  the  recitation  room,  the  tutors  appeared 
like  luminaries  of  the  second  magnitude.  He  was  in 
middle  life,  or  close  upon  it.  Thirty  was  a  great  step 
beyond  twenty-five,  to  our  thought.  He  was,  also,  an 
assistant  professor.  He  had  lived  in  a  foreign  uni- 
versity. He  seemed,  indeed,  to  belong  to  an  older 
generation,  and  we  stood  in  awe  of  him,  more  than  we 
did  of  the  tutors. 

Mr.  Brace  was  the  leading  scholar  of  his  class  in 
college  rank — its  valedictorian — and,  according  to  the 
custom  of  that  era,  he  was  the  one  to  whom  the  tutor- 
ship was  first  offered  when  candidates  from  the  class 
were  sought  for.  He  held  the  office  for  four  years,  and 
was  with  us  as  our  Greek  teacher  during  one-half  of  this 
period.  Subsequently  he  turned  aside  from  classical 
studies  and  the  work  of  teaching,  and  became  engaged  in 
manufacturing  enterprises  in  which  he  had  good  success. 
He  lived  a  life  of  usefulness,  and  died  at  about  the  age 
of  sixty-three.  It  was,  perhaps,  in  some  measure  un- 
fortunate for  him,  so  far  as  our  remembrance  of  his 
work  in  connection  with  us  as  a  college  class  was  con- 
cerned, that  his  instruction  was  limited  to  the  earlier 
part  of  our  course  of  study.  He  was,  however,  accurate 
and  faithful  in  his  scholarship.  We  were  fitted  by  his 
teaching  for  what  we  were  called  to  do  as  we  passed, 
at  the  beginning  of  our  Junior  year,  to  more  advanced 
work  under  the  care  of  another  instructor.  In  his  per- 
sonal relations  to  his  pupils,  he  was  a  kindly  gentleman. 

25 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

As  a  man  of  genuine  character  and  high  moral  tone,  he 
exerted  an  influence  for  good  throughout  his  entire 
career. 

Mr.  Emerson,  unlike  his  classmate  and  fellow-tutor, 
devoted  himself  to  scholarly  work  in  the  educational 
sphere  during  the  whole  period  of  his  active  life — a 
long  period,  as  he  lived  until  the  fourth  of  August,  1900, 
fifty-nine  years  after  his  graduation.  His  department 
of  instruction,  as  he  met  us  in  our  Freshman  year,  was 
mathematics.  Whether  his  work  in  this  line  of  teach- 
ing was  undertaken  voluntarily,  or  whether,  on  the 
other  hand,  some  special  and  temporary  need  of  the 
college  called  for  his  service,  I  am  unable  to  say.  But, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that,  in  the  preceding  and  following 
years,  he  chose  for  himself  the  Latin  studies,  and  a 
little  later  accepted  an  appointment  to  the  professorship 
of  Greek  in  Beloit  College,  it  would  seem  probable  that 
his  preferences  were  for  classical,  rather  than  mathemati- 
cal scholarship.  In  his  work  with  us  he  was  conscientious 
and  faithful,  but  Day's  Algebra,  though  a  valuable 
book,  was  not  a  very  attractive  one  to  the  average  mind 
of  the  Freshman  class.  During  our  Sophomore  year,  as 
we  read  Horace  and  Cicero  under  his  guidance,  we 
gained  for  ourselves  some  true  acquaintance  with  these 
authors.  His  own  appreciation  of  their  writings  was 
that  of  an  earnest  student  and  scholar.  Immediately 
upon  his  entrance  into  his  more  permanent  office  at 
Beloit,  he  became  a  most  influential  and  valuable  in- 
structor, and  in  many  ways  a  power  in  the  institution. 
Through  all  his  active  life  there  he  won  for  himself,  in 
a  very  marked  degree,  the  affection  and  respect  of  his 
pupils — their  respect  for  him  as  a  teacher  and  their 
affection  for  him  as  a  man.  He  was  eminently  worthy 
of  all  the  honor  which  he  received,  for  he  did  much  for 
the  building  and  development  of  the  college  which  he 
served.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  me  to  meet  him  in  his  later 
26 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

years,  and  to  see  how  kindly  he  remembered  those  whom 
he  had  known  in  the  days  long  past.  I  could  not  help 
feeling  that  he  had  had  a  happy  fortune  as  a  teacher  and 
a  scholar  in  the  sphere  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all 
languages — the  ancient  Greek. 

Of  Professor  Thacher  it  may  seem  to  Yale  men  who 
were  under  his  instruction  within  the  last  twenty-five 
or  thirty  years  of  his  life,  unnecessary  that  I  should  say 
anything  on  these  pages.  They  were  so  well  acquainted 
with  him  as  a  teacher,  a  man,  and  a  friend,  that  they  may 
readily  feel  that  no  one  can  add  to  their  knowledge. 
But,  as  I  have  already  stated,  my  classmates  and  myself 
came  into  connection  with  him  in  the  early  days  of  his 
assistant  professorship  and  immediately  after  his  stu- 
dent years  in  Europe.  We  saw  him,  as  it  were,  at  the 
beginning.  Moreover — for  myself  personally  I  may 
say — very  early,  so  early  that  I  cannot  definitely  remem- 
ber the  date,  he  seemed  to  find  in  me  something,  I  know 
not  what  it  was,  which  won  his  friendly  regard;  and 
from  that  time,  though  I  was  a  young  boy  and  he  a  full- 
grown  man,  he  took  me,  as  it  were,  to  his  heart.  His 
kindly  friendship  for  me  continued  through  all  the  years 
even  to  the  end  of  his  life,  and  he  was  wont  often  to 
speak  of  me  to  myself  and  others  as  his  oldest  son — 
the  son  of  his  affection,  to  whom  he  gave  a  place  in  his 
regard  near  to  that  which  was  held  by  the  sons  of  his 
household.  I  feel,  therefore,  that,  in  the  telling  of  this 
story  of  my  teachers,  I  may  indulge  myself  in  words  of 
remembrance  of  what  he  was  as  I  knew  him  in  the 
earlier  and  the  later  years. 

When  he  met  us  in  the  old  Athenaeum  recitation  room 
in  the  autumn  of  1845,  m*s  peculiar  gifts  and  character- 
istics as  a  teacher  at  once  arrested  our  attention  and 
awakened  our  interest.  He  seemed  always  to  under- 
stand and  lay  hold  of  what  was  central  in  its  importance 
in  the  lesson  of  the  day  or  the  subject  brought  before  us. 
27 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

With  the  utmost  clearness  and  distinctness  he  presented 
it  to  our  minds.  He  knew  just  what  to  say,  and  just  how 
to  say  it,  to  the  end  of  making  each  one  of  us  compre- 
hend and  appreciate  what  we  were  trying  to  learn.  His 
questions  guided  and  his  explanations  revealed.  We 
received  continually  that  which  satisfied  our  present  need 
and  made  us  ready  for  further  effort  and  progress.  Be- 
yond any  teacher  whom  I  have  ever  known,  he  had  the 
power  of  impressing  what  he  desired  to  communicate 
upon  the  student's  mind  and  memory  so  deeply  that  it 
could  not  be  forgotten.  His  gift  in  this  special  line  was 
wonderful,  and  as  all  will  admit,  it  is  one  of  the  very 
highest  and  best  gifts  that  a  teacher  can  possess. 

Professor  Thacher  was  of  a  commanding  presence  in 
the  recitation  room,  and  in  his  association  with  the  class. 
With  no  apparent  exercise  of  authority,  he  established 
and  maintained  order  in  every  company.  The  disposi- 
tion to  levity  or  mischief  was  immediately  restrained 
when  even  the  most  frolicsome  or  thoughtless  pupil  en- 
tered the  apartment  where  he  was.  Because  of  this 
forceful  character,  and  for  the  reason  that  he  appeared 
to  us  to  be  much  older  than  the  tutors,  we  thought  of 
him  as  the  impersonation  of  the  governing  power  of  the 
Faculty.  There  seemed  to  be  a  tinge  of  severity  at  times 
in  his  manner,  and  also  in  his  words,  which  added  to  the 
awe  in  which  we  held  him.  But  he  was  gifted  by  nature 
with  qualities  that  were  most  helpful  in  dealing  with 
college  students.  He  had  great  practical  wisdom  and 
energy;  unusual  tact  and  intelligence;  penetrating  in- 
sight into  character;  warm-hearted  and  generous  inter- 
est in  those  who  needed  his  thoughtful  aid  and  who 
proved  themselves  worthy  of  it.  He  was  a  true  lover  of 
his  fellow-men.  The  kindness  of  his  heart  went  outward 
towards  his  friends  with  an  unceasing  flow  of  tender, 
and  yet  manly  feeling.  The  man  of  thirty  had  within 
himself  the  beginning  of  what  the  man  of  fifty  and  sixty 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

had  in  the  later  years.  He  was  not  all  that  he  became 
afterwards.  No  genuine  and  true  man  can  be  so.  The 
years  record  their  history  in  the  inner,  as  truly  as  in  the 
outer  life.  The  fruitage  is  better  than  the  flower,  and 
the  autumn  richer  than  the  early  springtime.  Life 
would  not  be  worthy  of  itself,  were  it  not  so.  But  if 
the  promise  manifests  itself  in  the  earlier  days,  the  out- 
look is  full  of  hopefulness,  and  may  well  be  full  of 
confidence. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  watch  the  growing  life  of 
Professor  Thacher  for  forty  years;  and  it  was  oftentimes 
most  interesting  to  me  to  see  how  the  influence  of  time 
and  its  changes  wrought  within  him  its  best  results — 
how  the  sterner  qualities,  without  losing  out  of  them- 
selves anything  of  genuine  manliness,  gradually  took  on 
more  of  what  was  gentle  and  kindly — how  the  love  of 
his  children  made  him  more  affectionate  and  helpful 
towards  the  sons  of  others,  as  they  came  under  his  care 
— how  the  severity  of  the  early  period  turned  into  the 
benignity  of  advancing  age,  and  the  wisdom  of  age 
shone  forth  more  brightly  than  that  of  youth,  because 
of  the  maturer  love  which  guided  it.  No  man,  in  the 
half  century  that  has  just  closed,  won  for  himself  the 
warm-hearted  and  abiding  friendship  of  Yale  students 
in  larger  measure  than  he  did.  No  one  who  has  passed 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  earthly  life  is  held  in  more 
loving  memory.  The  thought  which  comes  to  us  all 
as  connected  with  his  life  and  work — whether  we  are  of 
the  earlier  classes  or  the  later  ones — is  that  of  the 
infinite  value  of  manhood  in  a  teacher,  and  of  the  worth 
of  what  the  teacher  does  through  his  genuine  excellence 
of  character  for  the  minds  and  souls  of  his  pupils. 

The  recitation  room — with  all  that  the  idea  of  it 
involved — constituted  a  larger  part  of  the  college  life  in 
all  our  colleges  in  1845,  tnan  ^  does  to-day.     It  con- 
29 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

centrated  more  attention  upon  itself,  as  compared  with 
other  things;  perhaps,  because  there  were  fewer  of  these 
other  things  on  which  the  mind  could  rest.  College- 
standing,  as  connected  with  the  work  of  the  recitation 
room — rank  in  scholarship,  as  determined  by  the  marks 
in  the  instructors'  books  from  day  to  day — was  a  matter 
of  greater  moment  to  the  universal  thought.  Men  had 
this  door  of  success  and  distinction  open  to  them.  The 
other  doors  were  not  many  in  number.  There  were  then 
of  course,  as  there  always  are  and  will  be,  students  who 
cared  little  for  their  studies,  or  indeed  for  anything  else 
except  their  own  enjoyment  from  day  to  day.  But  those 
who  were  moved  by  ambition,  or  by  higher  motives, 
were  constrained  to  seek  their  reward  either  from  the 
records  kept  by  the  tutors  and  professors,  or  in  the 
sphere  of  writing  or  debating. 

In  the  making  of  their  records  with  reference  to  the 
more  studious  men,  these  officials  of  the  institution 
seemed  to  me,  as  I  observed  the  success  of  my  associates 
or  noted  my  own  progress,  to  have  a  more  indulgent 
feeling,  or  to  place  a  more  favorable  estimate  upon  the 
work  that  was  done,  than  I  had  anticipated  at  the  outset. 
The  study  and  mental  effort  required  to  secure  even  the 
higher  positions  were  proved  by  the  results — so  I 
thought  when  the  honors  of  our  college  life  were  an- 
nounced— to  be  no  more  than  could  be  properly  asked 
for  in  the  case  of  men  who  were  possessed  of  good 
ability  and  were  willing  to  be  faithful  in  the  discharge 
of  daily  duties.  I  have  always,  since  the  experience  of 
my  undergraduate  years,  believed  that  at  least  twice  the 
number  of  students  in  any  college  class,  as  compared 
with  what  we  see  at  present,  could — with  no  undue  over- 
straining of  their  powers — reach  the  more  honorable 
scholarly  ranks.  The  hardship  of  the  demands  for  study 
made  by  our  colleges,  which  is  sometimes  spoken  of,  is, 
in  the  case  of  the  youth  who  is  well  fitted  when  he  enters 
30 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

upon  the  course  and  disposed  to  put  forth  his  energies 
in  a  manly  way,  a  figment  of  the  imagination.  These 
demands  call  only  for  what  may  with  fitness  be  expected 
from  university  men. 

The  indulgent  sentiment  manifested  towards  the  more 
studious  in  the  academic  circle,  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
did  not  exhibit  itself  with  reference  to  those  who  were 
of  the  lower  order  in  scholarship  in  the  degree  in  which 
it  might  well  have  done.  There  was,  on  the  part  of 
the  Faculty  of  those  days,  a  measure  of  severity  which 
seemed  at  times  hardly  reasonable,  and  was  certainly, 
from  our  present  point  of  view,  excessive.  It  appeared 
often  as  if  the  governing  thought,  especially  asserting 
itself  and  putting  forth  its  energy  at  the  close  of  each 
examination  or  of  each  term,  were,  that  the  fame  of 
the  institution  depended  on  the  numbers  that  should 
be  known  to  have  failed  to  meet  its  high  standard  of 
excellence.  The  idea  of  saving  the  weaker  men  and 
wakening  their  intellectual  powers,  that  they  might  be 
educated,  did  not  apparently  find  its  true  abiding-place 
in  the  minds  of  the  teachers.  This  was  the  case  in  all 
the  better  colleges,  in  their  measure.  It  was  in  accord- 
ance with  the  theory  of  the  era.  With  the  changes  of 
the  years,  a  new  order  of  things  has  been  realized.  Bet- 
ter notions  of  what  educational  institutions  should  have 
as  their  purpose,  and  of  the  way  in  which  they  may  best 
carry  out  that  purpose,  have  come  to  be  prevalent,  even 
while,  at  the  same  time,  education  itself  and  its  methods 
have  made  great  advancement. 

I  call  to  remembrance  vividly  a  word  of  the  vener- 
able President  addressed  to  my  classmates  and  myself 
before  the  ending  of  the  first  term  of  our  college  life. 
In  accordance  with  a  custom  which  then  prevailed,  he 
met  us,  on  a  single,  special  occasion,  for  the  offering  of 
wise  counsel  with  reference  to  the  life  upon  which  we 
had  so  recently  entered.  He  gave  us  his  advice,  to 

31 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

which  we  listened  respectfully  as  to  the  words  of  a 
prophet — and  then,  with  utterly  unmoved  face  or  feel- 
ing, as  if  he  were  saying  the  simplest  and  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world,  he  added:  "  Doubtless,  not  more 
than  one  half  of  your  number  will  graduate."  It  was 
not  a  very  encouraging  word  for  a  company  of  boys  just 
beginning  their  Freshman  year  and  just  awaking  to  the 
joys  and  hopes  of  the  new  experience.  But  it  was  a 
word  of  prophetic  foresight — as  was  proved  afterwards 
in  our  own  history.  The  class  numbered  one  hundred 
and  ten,  on  that  day  when  the  President  met  us.  On 
Commencement  Day,  four  years  afterwards,  fifty-five  of 
those  one  hundred  and  ten  young  men  received  their 
Bachelor's  degree.  Thirty-seven  of  the  one  hundred 
and  ten  terminated  their  college  career  as  members  of 
the  class  before  the  end  of  our  Freshman  year.  Possibly 
some  of  the  departing  ones  felicitated  themselves  with 
the  thought  that  the  President  himself  left  the  College, 
as  they  did,  at  the  close  of  that  year.  But  there  were 
differences  between  the  two — and  differences  which  were 
impressive  to  the  thought  of  those  among  us  who  re- 
mained, as  they  may  well  have  been  to  these  others  also 
— namely,  that  he  left  voluntarily  at  the  end  of  his 
course,  while  they  went  involuntarily,  most  of  them,  near 
the  beginning  of  theirs,  and  that  he  left  after  he  had 
uttered  his  prophecy,  while  they,  in  their  leaving,  ful- 
filled it. 

The  times  have  changed,  indeed — and  I  presume  that 
the  wisest  college  guides  and  teachers  of  to-day  would, 
with  substantial  unanimity,  say  that  an  institution  which 
removed  and  lost  one-third  of  its  entering  class  in  the 
first  year  of  the  course,  and  one-half  before  the  end, 
must  have  in  its  ideas  of  education  or  discipline  some- 
thing that  needed  correction  and  new  adjustment.  The 
thought  which  is  said  to  have  been  once  expressed  by 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  to  a  professor  in  one  of  our 
32 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

colleges  who  had  been  showing  him  the  buildings,  the 
libraries,  etc.,  and  who,  in  answer  to  a  question  asked  by 
Emerson,  had  said  to  him  that  there  were  about  five 
hundred  students  in  the  institution :  "Among  so  many 
there  must  be  four  or  five  who  are  worth  educating,"  is 
hardly  the  thought  of  the  modern  age.  The  old  system 
tended  towards  the  limit  of  the  four  or  five — not,  how- 
ever, by  reason  of  the  idea  which  Emerson  had  in  mind, 
but  because  of  what  had  grown  into  itself  and  its 
methods.  It  was  a  system  which  has  happily  been  modi- 
fied, and  has  largely  passed  away. 

The  discipline  of  those  years  was  administered  after 
a  similar  manner,  and  in  accordance  with  the  same  ideas. 
As  I  look  backward  from  this  distance  of  time,  I  cannot 
help  feeling  that  of  the  thirty-seven,  and  the  fifty-five, 
to  whom  I  have  alluded,  a  considerable  number,  whose 
departure  was  occasioned  by  disciplinary  action  on  the 
part  of  the  authorities,  might  easily  and  wisely  have  been 
saved,  and  would  have  been  saved  if  the  less  abrupt  and 
more  reasonable  methods  of  the  present  era  had  then 
been  known  or  followed.  But  the  influences  of  a  hun- 
dred years  earlier  were  still  abiding  with  much  of  their 
original  force.  The  governors  of  that  period,  intelli- 
gent as  they  were  and  worthy  of  all  esteem,  had  no 
thought  of  any  way  of  governing  other  than  that  which 
they  and  the  fathers  had  known — just  as  most  of  the 
Faculty,  from  1825  to  1840,  seemed  to  regard  it  as 
quite  impracticable  to  carry  on  the  institution  with  suc- 
cess, unless  they  maintained  the  old  system  and  rules 
which  required  all  the  students,  with  a  few  very  special 
exceptions,  to  take  their  daily  meals  in  the  College  Com- 
mons or  dining  hall.  There  was  a  prolonged  and  ener- 
getic wrestling  with  the  difficulties  and  disorders  having 
their  origin  in  the  Commons — among  the  most  serious 
disorders  ever  arising  in  the  College  community.  Every 
effort  in  the  way  of  pains  and  penalties  was  put  forth  to 

33 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  end  of  prevention.  An  immense  amount  of  thought 
was  devoted  to  the  subject.  But  all  proved  to  be  of  no 
avail.  At  length,  and  in  some  extraordinary  manner, 
a  new  light  came  to  the  minds  of  some  of  the  authori- 
ties, and  a  new  suggestion  was  made.  How  the  sugges- 
tion won  its  way  to  favor,  I  am  unable  to  say.  It  was 
before  my  college  days.  But  somehow,  in  the  year 
1842,  the  "powers  that  then  were"  were  brought  to 
consent  to  a  trial  of  a  new  system,  which  abolished  the 
"  required  Commons "  altogether.  The  action  was 
taken,  and  the  disorders  ceased  at  once — never  to  return. 

After  a  similar  manner,  what  were  called  the  Christ- 
mas disturbances  were  brought  to  an  end.  The  old  ar- 
rangement of  the  college  year  extended  the  autumn  term 
until  about  the  4th  of  January.  The  Christmas  season 
was  thus  within  the  limits  of  term-time.  By  reason  of 
the  growth,  through  a  long  period,  of  a  so-called  "  col- 
lege custom,"  the  evening  preceding  Christmas  was 
made  an  occasion  for  a  special  annual  outbreak  of  dis- 
order on  the  college  grounds,  which  had  no  equal  in  its 
peculiarities  at  any  other  season.  There  was  frequent 
consideration  of  the  matter  on  the  part  of  the  governing 
body,  and  also  much  debate  as  to  possible  ways  of  re- 
moving the  evil.  But  the  disturbances  continued  un- 
diminished  until  1850,  or  a  little  later,  when,  through 
some  happy  inspiration  or  influence,  a  simple  and  abso- 
lute remedy  was  devised.  The  Christmas  season  was 
placed  in  the  vacation. 

The  method  finally  adopted  in  each  of  these  cases 
seems  to  my  own  mind  such  an  easy  and  natural  one 
that  it  might  have  suggested  itself  at  first  thought.  As 
I  think  of  it,  I  am  reminded  of  a  story  which  used  to  be 
told  of  the  early  childhood  of  one  of  the  old  professors, 
in  my  undergraduate  days.  The  child  was  noticed  by  a 
gentleman  passing  along  the  street  to  be  under  a  horse 
that  was  feeding  on  the  college  grounds.  He  was  in 
34 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

much  distress,  and  was  crying  with  a  loud  voice.  The 
gentleman — observing  that,  as  the  horse  now  and  then 
took  a  step  forward,  the  child  stepped  forward  also, 
but  still  remained  under  him — said,  "  My  little  boy,  why 
are  you  crying?"  The  child  replied,  "Because  I  am 
under  this  horse,  and  I  don't  know  how  to  get  out." 
"  Why,  come  right  out,"  said  the  gentleman.  The  child 
followed  the  advice,  the  problem  was  solved,  and  the 
distress  came  to  its  end. 

It  is  now  more  than  forty  years  since  I  heard  this 
story.  During  all  this  period  I  have  been  a  close  ob- 
server of  college  life,  and  I  find  it  very  impressive  in  the 
retrospect,  as  it  has  been  in  the  years  of  experience,  to 
call  to  mind  the  multitude  of  cases  of  difficulty  and  per- 
plexity— of  long-continued  discussion  and  even  animated 
controversy,  in  which  the  advice  of  the  gentleman  to  the 
child  offered  the  one  and  only  sufficient  solution,  which, 
if  chosen  at  the  beginning,  would  have  saved  all  debate 
and  anxiety:  "  Come  right  out."  That  is  the  way. 
But  the  men  of  those  days,  in  the  forties,  did  not  see  it, 
in  the  matter  of  discipline;  and,  as  the  world  goes,  it  is 
not  so  very  remarkable  that  they  did  not.  Changes  in 
prevalent  ideas  come  only  with  a  slow  progress.  They 
come  thus  in  the  case  of  intelligent,  as  well  as  unintelli- 
gent men.  Their  coming  at  all  is,  perhaps,  a  greater 
marvel  than  their  not  coming  more  rapidly.  It  is  not 
befitting  to  pass  judgment  from  the  standpoint  of  a  later 
age.  And  yet  I  confess  that  in  those  days  when  I  was 
a  young  man,  and  now  also,  when  I  am  old,  it  seemed, 
and  still  seems,  in  some  degree  inexplicable  that  "  the 
child,"  if  I  may  borrow  the  words  from  the  story,  "  re- 
mained so  long  under  the  horse,"  notwithstanding  his 
distress,  and  that  it  did  not  occur  to  more  minds  that 
there  would  be  an  increasingly  peaceful  world,  if  the 
discipline  were  made  less  legal  and  more  paternal. 
Whether  the  matter,  however,  was  inexplicable  or  not 

35 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

In  the  case  of  those  men,  or  whether  it  is  so  in  the  experi- 
ence of  the  considerable  numbers  of  college  governors  of 
to-day  who  seem  to  be  in  the  same  distressful  condition, 
I  may  say  for  myself  that  I  am,  and  have  long  been, 
happy  in  the  thought  that  I  "  stepped  out "  very  early 
in  life,  as  the  old  professor  did,  and  that  I  have  had  the 
freedom  in  this  particular  regard  of  which  he  may  have 
been  conscious  in  the  later  years.  He  never,  indeed, 
fully  escaped  the  besetting  of  perplexities  and  difficulties. 
Few  men  do  escape  altogether.  I  certainly  have  not 
found  myself  able  to  do  so.  But  I  made  my  escape  from 
this  one  long,  long  ago — much  to  my  own  quiet  enjoy- 
ment of  life  and,  as  I  think,  to  that  of  others  also. 

Thus,  with  these  possibilities  and  privileges,  we  en- 
tered upon  our  college  course,  and  thus  we  moved  on- 
ward, as  related  to  our  teachers  and  our  studies,  our  ex- 
ternal surroundings  and  the  orderings  and  discipline  of 
our  life — a  company  of  happy  and  hopeful  youth.  Of 
our  relations  to  one  another  and  what  pertained  to  us 
afterwards  in  our  membership  of  the  academic  com- 
munity, some  words  may  be  added  on  subsequent  pages. 
The  Freshman  year  passed  on  through  the  successive 
weeks.  The  unfamiliar  scenes  grew  familiar,  and  the 
daily  round  of  pleasures  and  duties  became  as  if  we  had 
known  it  always.  We  were,  as  I  have  just  said,  happy 
and  hopeful  youth — boys,  most  of  us;  young  men,  some 
of  us.  The  oldest  member  of  the  class  at  graduation 
was  thirty-three.  The  youngest  was  eighteen.  The 
average  age  of  the  graduating  members  as  we  left  the 
college  walls  was  twenty-two  years  and  three  months — 
but  very  little  less  than  the  average  age  at  graduation  of 
the  Yale  students  of  to-day.  Probably,  at  our  entrance 
upon  the  college  life,  the  proportion  of  younger  mem- 
bers to  older  was  greater  than  at  the  end.  Those  that 
fell  by  the  wayside  were  more  largely  of  the  younger 
36 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

set,  who  failed  in  scholarship  because  they  had  not  been 
thoroughly  prepared,  or  were  cut  off  in  consequence  of 
the  thoughtless  follies  of  their  boyhood,  which  led  them 
to  transgress. the  rules  in  one  way  or  another.  The  older 
men  were,  as  is  almost  always  the  case  among  college 
students,  more  serious — with  a  certain  kind  of  serious- 
ness. They  had  come  to  the  institution  with  a  more 
definite  and  earnest  purpose,  and  had  a  larger  measure  of 
the  sober-mindedness  which  the  Apostle  exhorted  his 
youthful  friend  and  helper  in  the  ministry  to  have. 
Some  of  these  older  men  had  already  been  school-teach- 
ers. For  this  reason  they  naturally  looked  at  the  studies 
and  the  general  daily  life  as  if  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  Faculty — a  thing  which  was  hardly  possible  in  the 
case  of  the  young  boys.  But,  stating  the  matter  in  a 
general  way,  it  may  be  said  that  we  graduated  at  twenty- 
two  and  three  months,  and  entered  at  about  eighteen. 

I  have  just  said  that  the  older  men  were  more  serious 
and  thoughtful.  This  was  a  matter  of  course.  In  our 
company,  however,  they  did  not  separate  themselves 
from  the  life  and  sympathies  of  their  younger  brethren. 
The  oldest  one  among  us  was  as  genial  and  kindly,  as 
full  of  genuine  enthusiasm,  and  as  heartily  appreciative 
of  boyish  feelings  and  enjoyments,  as  any  one  of  the 
classmates.  He  was  charming  in  his  youth  fulness 
through  all  the  years  afterward;  ever  growing  more  win- 
some, for  this  very  reason,  even  to  the  end.  When,  at 
the  age  of  seventy,  he  passed  into  the  other  life  at  a 
moment's  call,  we  who  had  known  him  so  long  felt  that 
he  had,  indeed,  gone  to  the  home  of  eternal  youth.  In 
sentiment  and  the  freshness  of  the  heart  he  seemed,  at 
the  last,  to  be  almost  the  youngest  of  us  all. 

I  was  myself  one  of  the  younger  members  of  the 
class,  having  entered  college  before  I  was  seventeen  and 
graduated  before  I  was  twenty-one.  Two-thirds  of  the 

37 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

classmates  were  farther  on  in  years,  and  a  very  con- 
siderable number  were,  at  graduation,  from  five  to  eight 
years  in  advance  of  me.  I  have  always  felt  in  the  review 
of  the  past,  and  I  still  have  the  same  feeling,  that  I  was 
greatly  privileged  in  graduating  at  such  a  youthful  age, 
and  have  ever  congratulated  myself  that  the  five  or  eight 
years  which  separated  me  from  my  older  classmates  were 
given  to  me  after  the  college  course  was  ended,  instead 
of  being  finished,  as  they  were  in  their  case,  before  that 
course  began.  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  wisdom  of  an 
early  entrance  upon  college  studies,  and  it  seems  to  me, 
after  the  observation  and  experience  of  half  a  century, 
that  the  view  of  many  parents  and  teachers,  that  stu- 
dents should  not  begin  the  college  life  before  the  age 
of  nineteen,  is  an  altogether  mistaken  one.  The  boy 
who  has  good  advantages  and  is  free  from  the  burden  of 
self-support  should  be  urged  forward,  rather  than  re- 
strained or  delayed  in  his  educational  course.  It  should 
not  be  forgotten,  that  the  youth  who  graduates  at 
twenty  or  twenty-one  has  years  to  spare — whether  he 
begins  at  once  his  work  in  preparation  for  his  special  ca- 
reer in  life,  or  not — which  he  can  use  to  the  end  of  his 
best  manly  development,  and  with  more  fully  disciplined 
powers.  Whether,  however,  the  entrance,  and  thus  the 
graduation,  be  earlier  or  later,  the  college  discipline  and 
experience  may  well  be  desired  by  all  parents  for  their 
sons  as  they  are  truly  fitted  to  profit  by  them,  and  by 
every  young  man  for  himself  as  he  thinks  of  the  best 
possibilities  for  his  future. 


IV 

President  Day's  Retirement — His  Character  and  Work, 
and  His  Era 

I  HAVE  lingered  longer  than  I  might  have  done  on 
my  experiences  at  my  entrance  within  the  college 
walls,  and  upon  those  of  the  earliest  year  of  my 
course.  They  were,  no  doubt,  of  less  significance  than 
my  story  may  have  appeared  to  claim  for  them.  But, 
as  they  were  the  beginning  of  the  new  career,  I  have 
given  them  with  somewhat  of  fullness  because  they 
seemed  fitted  to  set  forth  in  a  kind  of  picture  the  life 
of  the  old  time,  in  its  contrast  with  that  of  the  more 
recent  eras.  Henceforward,  in  referring  to  my  college 
years,  I  shall  endeavor  to  tell  of  them  with  less  of  detail, 
and  to  bring  the  things  included  within  them  into  a 
more  comprehensive  whole. 

The  close  of  our  first  year  of  study  was  contempora- 
neous with  the  opening  of  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of 
the  institution.  As  has  been  already  intimated  on  a  pre- 
vious page,  the  venerable  President,  whose  term  of 
service  had  extended  through  a  period  of  twenty-nine 
years,  resigned  his  office  and  passed  over  its  duties  to  his 
successor.  These  twenty-nine  years  measured  the  time 
which  had  elapsed  since  the  death  of  the  first  President 
Dwight — that  event  having  occurred  on  the  eleventh  of 
January,  1817,  and  the  election  of  President  Day  having 
taken  place  on  the  twenty-second  of  the  following  April. 
The  passing  of  the  Presidency  from  one  incumbent  to 
another  is  an  event  of  no  little  importance  in  any  col- 
legiate institution.  In  the  experience  of  our  College  and 

39 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

University  during  the  past  century,  it  has  been,  in  every 
case,  one  of  peculiar  significance.  Certainly  it  was  so 
at  the  time  when  Dr.  Day  entered  upon  his  official  du- 
ties, and  in  an  equal  measure  at  the  time  when  he  retired 
from  them.  The  first  President  Dwight,  as  was  univer- 
sally recognized  by  his  contemporaries  and  as  all  who 
are  familiar  with  the  records  of  the  past  now  acknowl- 
edge, was  a  man  of  creative  mind;  of  comprehensive 
and  generous  views;  of  singular  appreciativeness  with 
reference  to  the  claims  and  the  value  of  all  learning;  of 
an  inspiring  thought  of  the  future,  and  a  confident  be- 
lief that  it  would  bring  with  itself  the  realization  of 
greater  things.  He  was  the  man  who,  at  the  opening  of 
the  century,  grasped  the  idea  of  the  University  of  the 
coming  time,  and  by  his  efforts,  his  enthusiasm,  his 
executive  force,  and  his  wise  thoughtfulness  in  the  years 
that  followed,  laid  the  foundations  whereon  the  Univer- 
sity in  its  present  life  and  development  rests.  The  period 
of  his  administration  was  one  in  which  the  possibilities 
of  results,  as  compared  with  our  own  age,  were  limited. 
But  it  was  a  period  when,  for  a  far-seeing  and  wide- 
reaching  mind,  the  possibilities  of  vision  were  not  thus 
limited.  He  had  the  great  vision  and  he  realized, 
within  the  limitations  of  what  was  possible,  the  actual 
results.  The  institution  was  constantly  putting  forth  its 
powers  and  moving  on  in  its  growth.  Its  plan  for  the 
long  future  was  formed,  and  was  large  and  broad 
enough  for  the  century's  working.  The  unfolding  of 
the  plan  into  reality  was  accomplished  so  far  as  to  make 
the  promise  of  completeness  an  inspiration  for  coura- 
geous and  believing  souls. 

The  demand  of  the  period  which  opened  at  the  close 
of  Dr.  Dwight's  career  was  for  a  man  of  quite  a  differ- 
ent type.  The  growing  life  was  now  to  be  regulated  and 
made  enduring.  Permanency  was  to  be  given  to  the  ani- 
mating principles  and  impelling  powers  pertaining  to  it. 
40 


PRESIDENT   TIMOTHY   DWIGHT 
I795-I8I7 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

The  entire  order  and  system  of  things  in  which  it  had 
had  its  origin  were  to  be  established  upon  settled  founda- 
tions. Under  these  conditions,  it  was  fitting  that  the 
creative  mind  and  uplifting  force  should  be  followed 
by  a  force  and  mind  of  a  conservative  character — the 
wisdom  of  foresight  and  of  execution  passing,  as  it  were, 
into  the  wisdom  of  calmness  and  caution — the  wisdom 
of  the  architect  being  succeeded  by  that  of  the  safe  and 
slower  builder.  President  Day  was  the  man  for  the 
time.  His  very  personal  presence  carried  with  itself 
the  impression,  for  every  one  who  saw  him,  of  stability, 
of  composure,  of  deliberate  thoughtfulness,  of  an  ever 
watchful  prudence.  His  inner  life  was  in  complete  har- 
mony with  his  outward  bearing;  and  his  whole  career 
made  manifest,  with  constantly  increasing  distinctness, 
to  his  most  intimate  associates  and  friends  this  harmony 
which  had  become  apparent  to  their  minds  even  at  the 
beginning  of  their  acquaintance  with  him. 

As  we  look  back  over  the  years  of  his  Presidency,  we 
cannot  doubt  that  he  understood  the  meaning  of  the  call 
that  came  to  him.  The  work  to  which  he  gave  himself, 
and  which  he  carried  forward  even  to  the  end,  was  that 
of  rendering  secure  the  inheritance  from  the  previous 
era,  together  with  all  that  this  involved.  In  full  sym- 
pathy with  the  plans  of  his  predecessor,  he  held  himself 
in  readiness  for  the  founding  of  new  departments  of  the 
institution,  when  possible,  and  thus  widening  the  range 
of  its  teaching  and  its  influence.  He  led  the  way,  for 
his  time,  in  making  the  ideal  of  the  college  education, 
in  every  line,  reality  as  contrasted  with  mere  appearance 
or  pretense.  With  the  whole  force  of  his  nature  he  con- 
tributed to  the  placing  of  sound  learning  and  true  char- 
acter as  the  uppermost  things  for  the  thoughts  of  all  in 
their  preparation  for  their  career  as  educated  men.  That 
he  accomplished  this  work  so  successfully  at  the  critical 
period  when  it  was  most  needed,  and  that  he  thus  passed 

41 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

over  to  all  the  coming  generations,  as  a  sure  and  safe 
possession,  the  best  elements  of  the  Yale  life  originated 
in  the  earlier  days,  may  well  be  a  ground  of  thankfulness 
on  the  part  of  every  one  who  loves  the  University. 

In  a  discourse  commemorative  of  the  venerable  Presi- 
dent, which  was  delivered  soon  after  his  death,  Dr. 
Woolsey  mentioned  an  interesting  fact  giving  evidence 
of  the  insight  and  foresight  of  President  Dwight.  "  I 
am  able,"  he  remarked,  "  to  state  on  the  best  authority 
that  Dr.  Dwight  after  the  beginning  of  his  fatal  malady, 
one  day  when  the  Faculty  of  the  College  had  been  as- 
sembled and  the  professors  had  remained  behind,  turned 
abruptly  to  Professor  Day  and  said,  '  Mr.  Day,  you 
must  be  my  successor.'  "  Dr.  Day's  colleagues  and  his 
pupils,  from  the  time  of  his  appointment  to  the  Presi- 
dency to  the  very  end  of  his  term  of  service,  recognized 
the  wisdom  of  the  choice  which  his  predecessor  had  had 
in  his  thought  and  which  the  Corporation  had  made. 

As  my  own  opportunity  for  personal  knowledge  of 
President's  Day's  administration  was  limited  to  a  single 
year,  and  that  year  the  earliest  of  my  college  course,  I 
must  be  largely  dependent  for  my  estimate  of  him  upon 
my  observation  of  his  life  in  its  later  period,  and  upon 
the  testimony  of  others.  But,  recalling  my  own  impres- 
sions, I  may  say — and  I  think,  with  appropriateness — 
that  he  was  a  wise  disciplinarian,  a  judicious  governor, 
a  thorough  and  accurate  scholar,  a  valuable  teacher,  and 
a  man  of  intelligent  and  penetrative  mind.  In  his  tem- 
perament he  was  marked,  in  an  eminent  degree,  by 
serenity.  He  had  the  characteristic  peacefulness  of  the 
Christian  life,  as  well  as  the  moderation,  long-suffering 
patience,  and  gentleness,  which  are  commended  in  the 
Scriptures.  At  the  same  time  there  was  always  manifest 
in  him  a  quiet,  yet  strong  and  earnest  purpose,  that 
moved  him  forward  to  the  ends  which  he  set  before  him- 


PRESIDENT   JEREMIAH   DAY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

self.  In  his  relations  to  the  students  he  was  a  friend — 
a  benignant  and  paternal  friend,  indeed — venerable,  to 
their  thought,  by  reason  of  his  age  and  dignified  bearing, 
but  at  all  times  gracious  and  helpful  when  they  presented 
themselves  before  him  or  needed  his.  aid.  In  his  deal- 
ings with  them  individually,  or  as  a  body,  he  exhibited 
a  high  degree  of  intelligence  and  discretion;  never  mag- 
nifying little  offenses,  so  that  they  became  to  his  thought 
great  ones;  never  making  a  show  of  authority  for  the 
mere  sake  of  rendering  it  or  himself  conspicuous;  never 
turning  hastily  or  wilfully  toward  severity,  when  his 
calm  and  clear  mind  saw  that  the  object  to  be  desired 
could  be  secured  by  persuasion.  There  was  no  lack  of 
manly  decision  and  action  on  his  part,  if  an  emergency 
called  for  the  display  of  such  manliness.  But  not  every 
occurrence  in  the  college  daily  life  which  was  indicative 
of  student  waywardness  or  disorder  constituted  in  his 
judgment  such  an  emergency. 

By  reason  of  some  singular  chance,  or  the  develop- 
ment of  a  peculiar  era,  the  years  near  the  middle  point 
of  his  Presidency — 1827  to  1832 — brought  disturb- 
ances, and  even  rebellions,  into  the  undergraduate  com- 
munity, such  as  had  never  been  known  before  and  have 
happily  never  since  been  repeated.  He  proved  himself 
fully  adequate  to  meet  the  demand  which  these  disorders 
created.  The  government  was  victorious,  even  though 
rigorous  measures  were  carried  so  far  that  more  than 
half  of  the  membership  of  one  of  the  classes  was  re- 
moved from  the  institution.  Even  when  he  adopted  or 
approved  the  severest  action,  however,  he  had  so  much 
wisdom,  and  was  recognized  as  being  of  so  judicial  and 
kindly  a  spirit,  that  the  students  at  no  time  lost  anything 
of  their  reverential  regard  or  affection  for  him.  But 
after  the  great  disorders  had  passed  by  and  no  signs  of 
their  renewal  were  manifest,  he  took  the  reasonable  view 
of  college  life  and  acted  in  accordance  with  it.  He  did 

43 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

not  carry  over  the  strictness  of  discipline  which  had, 
under  special  circumstances,  become  necessary,  into  a  fol- 
lowing time  when  there  was  no  call  for  it,  and  did  not 
so  fall  into  the  habit  of  inflicting  penalties  that  it  seemed 
to  him  ever  afterwards  necessary  to  inflict  them  when 
the  offenses  were  insignificant  in  comparison.  He  left 
the  use  of  severity  for  its  own  sake  to  those  to  whom  it 
was  natural  to  make  such  use  of  it — and  there  are  always 
men  of  this  order — while,  for  himself,  he  measured  his 
action  by  the  measure  of  the  case  before  him  and  its 
demands.  He  said  at  the  close  of  his  administration,  in 
a  public  address:  "A  faithful  and  discreet  college 
officer  has  his  eye  upon  the  minutest  deviations  from 
correct  deportment.  But  he  may  suffer  them  to  pass 
without  censure,  if  he  sees  no  danger  that  they  will  grow 
into  evils  of  formidable  magnitude.  He  distinguishes 
between  the  harmless  light  of  the  glow-worm  and  the 
spark  which  is  falling  on  the  magazine  of  gunpowder." 
"The  best  college  government,"  he  adds,  uis  that  which 
occasions  the  least  observation,  except  by  its  success. 
Public  punishment  may  be  sometimes  necessary.  But 
the  benign  influence  which  is  continually  moulding  the 
character  and  regulating  the  deportment  of  students,  is 
like  the  silent  dew,  which  manifests  itself  only  by  the 
charm  which  it  spreads  over  the  verdure  of  the  morning. 
All  display  of  authority,  all  discipline  proceeding  from 
the  love  of  power,  is  to  be  scrupulously  avoided." 

The  excellent  President  was  too  cautious,  and  too 
slow  in  his  movements.  This  must  be  admitted,  as  I 
think,  even  when  all  allowances  are  made  for  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  time.  But  certainly,  in  reference  to 
this  matter  of  college  discipline  and  government,  he  was 
in  advance  not  only  of  his  own  generation,  but  of  the 
generation  that  immediately  followed.  Had  his  ideas, 
as  guided  by  his  wisdom,  gained  controlling  influence 
when  he  acted  upon  them  or  made  them  known,  the  hap- 

44 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

pier  age,  in  which  we  of  the  present  time  rejoice,  would 
have  been  introduced,  with  its  blessings,  much  earlier 
than  it  was.  But  the  influences  of  the  past  were  too 
strong  to  be  overpowered,  and  even  the  ablest  and 
wisest  members  of  the  Faculty  found  it  difficult  to  grasp 
the  thought  of  government  apart  from  the  constant  dis- 
play of  power,  or  of  authority  as  exercised  without  vio- 
lence of  repression. 

In  his  relations  to  his  colleagues,  whether  older  or 
younger,  President  Day  acted  upon  principles  kindred 
to  those  which  guided  his  course  with  reference  to  his 
pupils.  He  never  used  his  official  position  and  dignity 
in  the  way  of  interference  with  their  individual  duties 
or  prerogatives.  On  the  other  hand,  as  Dr.  Woolsey 
says  of  him,  he  always  confided  in  their  readiness  to  do 
their  appropriate  work  on  principle,  and  without  super- 
vision. This  same  generous  treatment  of  those  asso- 
ciated with  him  was  characteristic  of  his  predecessor  in 
the  chair  of  administration,  and  through  the  influence 
of  the  two  men  the  idea  of  responsibility  without  inter- 
ference was  established  as  the  Yale  idea  for  the  future. 
That  this  idea — this  theory  of  the  relationship  of  the 
individual  members  of  the  Faculty  to  the  President,  and 
to  one  another — and  I  may  add,  of  the  entire  board  of 
instruction,  when  acting  in  their  own  sphere,  to  the 
Corporation  of  the  University — has  contributed  largely 
to  the  devotedness  of  Yale  teachers  to  their  work  and  to 
the  interests  of  the  institution,  cannot  be  questioned.  To 
this  cause  also  is  due,  in  no  inconsiderable  measure,  the 
freedom  from  petty  difficulties  and  jealousies,  as  well 
as  from  friction  of  every  sort,  which  has  been  so  marked 
a  feature  of  the  history  of  the  College.  It  has  been  in- 
teresting to  me  to  notice  in  how  large  a  proportion  of 
the  cases  of  difficulty  which  have  been  presented  to  me 
by  officers  of  other  colleges,  with  the  inquiry  as  to  our 
ordinary  course  of  action  under  similar  circumstances, 

45 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

I  have  been  enabled  to  state  that  we  have  had  no 
such  cases  in  our  experience.  We  have  lived  at  Yale 
in  undisturbed  peace  fulness  through  all  the  century,  and 
we  owe  our  happy  condition  in  this  regard  very  largely 
to  the  wisdom  and  generous  sentiment  of  those  who 
administered  the  affairs  and  directed  the  life  of  the  in- 
stitution when  the  century  was  moving  onward  in  its 
earlier  years. 

President  Day's  deliberateness  in  decision  and  in 
action,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  had  the  effect  upon 
his  contemporaries  which  this  characteristic  in  a  man  of 
his  serenity  and  dignity  often  has.  It  established  in  their 
minds  on  the  firmest  foundations  the  conviction  that  he 
was,  everywhere  and  always,  not  only  judicious,  but 
eminently  wise.  I  do  not  know  why  it  is  that  slowness 
in  pronouncing  judgment,  or  in  adopting  new  measures, 
is  so  generally  looked  upon  as  a  clear  evidence 'of  wis- 
dom. I  have  no  doubt  that  such  slowness  is  sometimes 
wise.  But  it  is  not  always  so;  and  as  a  permanent  and 
prevailing  characteristic  of  the  mind,  I  cannot  think 
that  it  is  a  mark  of  this  gift  in  its  highest  order.  Prompt- 
ness of  decision  is,  oftentimes,  essential  to  such  wisdom. 
The  man  who  has  a  practical  question  submitted  to  him 
and  who  deliberates  on  it  for  a  year  before  coming  to  a 
decision,  takes — we  may,  in  some  cases  at  least,  safely 
say — too  much  time  to  be  accounted  more  than  prudent. 
The  good  President  had  the  wisdom  of  deliberation, 
rather  than  that  of  the  other  sort,  as  even  his  intimate 
friends  confessed.  But  the  gift  which  he  possessed  was 
that  which  in  their  view,  as  they  thought  and  spoke  of 
him,  constituted  the  wise  man ;  and  they  never  pictured 
him  to  themselves  in  any  other  light.  Their  opinion 
was,  beyond  doubt,  a  testimony  of  weight  to  what  he 
really  was,  and  it  is,  perchance,  unbecoming  in  us  who 
were  mere  boys  when  he  was  old  and  venerable,  and 
had  little  knowledge  of  his  era  and  its  demands,  to 
46 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

question  in  any  measure  what  they  told  us.  A  corner 
lot  may,  indeed,  be  better  than  one  not  thus  situated,  and 
a  year's  deliberation  may  be  longer  continued  than  is 
consistent  with  the  shortness  of  life  or  the  needs  of  the 
special  case;  but,  in  an  age  of  conservation,  the  conser- 
vative judgment  which  deliberates  and  waits  must  give 
beneficial  results. 

President  Day  was  too  reserved  and  undemonstrative 
in  the  expression  of  feeling.  This  peculiar  characteristic 
was  nearly  allied  to  the  conservatism  and  caution  which 
so  strongly  marked  him.  Possibly  the  one  could  not 
have  existed  without  the  other.  No  doubt,  both  of  the 
two  qualities  may  have  been  developed  in  their  force 
by  reason  of  the  special  circumstances  connected  with 
his  physical  health,  which  required,  throughout  his  en- 
tire career,  the  utmost  thoughtfulness  and  all  possible 
freedom  from  excitement.  So  striking,  however,  was 
this  reserve,  that  it  was  very  impressive  to  the  mind  of 
every  one  who  saw  him  even  for  a  little  time,  while  to 
those  who  were  in  more  intimate  relations  of  acquaint- 
anceship or  friendship  it  seemed  one  of  the  most  conspic- 
uous elements  of  his  nature.  It  is  said  that  on  a  certain 
evening,  when  his  youngest  daughter,  then  eighteen  years 
of  age,  was  about  leaving  her  home  to  pass  the  winter 
with  friends  in  another  city,  he  came  into  the  parlor 
where  she  was  and,  addressing  her  by  name,  said  to  her : 
"We  shall  miss  you  when  you  are  gone,"  and  that  this 
was  so  much  stronger  an  expression  of  his  feeling  than 
she  had  known  before,  that  she  was  moved  by  it  to  tears. 
Such  a  story  would  seem  strange  in  these  more  modern 
days.  Even  at  that  day,  it  indicated  a  personality  un- 
demonstrative on  the  emotional  side.  But  I  can  well 
remember  a  discourse  commemorative  of  one  of  the  most 
prominent  citizens  of  Connecticut  about  forty  years  ago, 
in  which  his  friend  and  pastor,  when  setting  forth  the 
grounds  of  confidence  in  his  Christian  character,  said  of 

47 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

him: — "He  was,  however,  so  reticent  as  to  the  feelings 
and  experiences  of  the  soul  that,  in  a  married  life  ex- 
tending over  more  than  a  generation,  even  his  wife  could 
not  remember  that  she  had  ever  heard  him  express  him- 
self respecting  them  with  distinctness  or  confidence." 
The  New  Englanders  of  the  older  time  certainly  lived 
more  in  the  inside  of  themselves  than  they  did  on  the 
outside — so  far  as  their  deepest  and  truest  life  was  con- 
cerned. This  was  the  fact  with  reference  to  men  who 
were  born,  as  President  Day  was,  in  1773,  as  well  as  to 
men  who  lived  at  an  earlier  period.  The  change  which 
has  taken  place  between  the  era  of  those  whom  the 
younger  generation  of  fifty  years  ago  called  the  fathers, 
and  the  days  in  which  we  are  now  living,  is  a  marvelous 
one  in  this  regard.  But  even  to-day,  New  Englanders 
are  called  reticent.  They  are  so,  no  doubt,  as  compared 
with  some  other  peoples. 

The  measured  and  methodical  life  which  the  excellent 
President  lived — accompanied,  as  it  was,  by  his  prudence 
and  reserve — had  its  origin  partly,  we  may  believe,  even 
as  already  intimated,  in  the  condition  of  his  health  in 
his  earlier,  as  well  as  his  later,  years.  He  was  obliged, 
by  reason  of  his  infirmity  in  this  regard,  to  break  off 
his  college  course  at  or  near  the  end  of  his  Sophomore 
year,  and  to  suspend  his  studies  until  the  time  when  the 
class  which  he  had  originally  entered  was  graduated. 
Although  at  first  a  member  of  the  class  of  1793,  he  did 
not,  accordingly,  receive  his  Bachelor's  degree  until 
1795.  From  1798  to  1801  he  held  the  position  of 
tutor  in  the  College,  and  in  the  last-named  year  he  was 
elected  by  the  Corporation  to  the  Professorship  of 
Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy.  Before  the  date 
of  the  election,  however,  he  was  attacked  by  a  hemor- 
rhage of  the  lungs,  and  the  signs  of  tubercular  con- 
sumption became  manifest.  He  was  obliged  to  take  a 
48 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

sea  voyage  in  the  hope  of  gaining  new  strength,  and  t-> 
pass  several  months  in  the  islands  of  Bermuda. 

A  letter  from  a  friend  of  his,  the  late  Mr.  Charles 
Denison,  of  New  Haven,  to  the  elder  Professor  Silli- 
man,  who  was  at  that  time  in  Europe,  indicates  the 
general  feeling  in  the  College  with  regard  to  Mr.  Day's 
prospects  of  continued  life.  On  the  fifth  of  December, 
1802,  Mr.  Denison  writes:  "I  have  lately  heard  from 
Mr.  Day.  He  is  no  better,  but  rather  worse  than  when 
he  left  us.  Dr.  Dwight  told  me,  a  short  time  since,  that 
he  had  given  over  the  expectation  of  ever  seeing  Mr. 
Day  in  the  professor's  chair.  What  a  loss  to  the  institu- 
tion !"  Every  one  who  knew  him  anticipated  his  early 
death.  No  doubt,  he  anticipated  it  for  himself.  His 
winter  in  the  milder  climate,  however,  and  his  scrupulous 
and  constant  attention  to  his  health  enabled  him  to  re- 
turn to  his  home,  in  the  following  spring,  with  an  in- 
crease of  strength  and  of  hope.  Nevertheless  he  was 
compelled  to  use  the  utmost  care,  and  to  limit  himself 
strictly  in  the  way  of  exertion  or  excitement,  in  order 
that  he  might,  if  possible,  prolong  his  life.  Moderation 
in  all  things  thus  became  a  necessity  for  him  in  the  suc- 
ceeding years;  and  it  grew  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  law  of 
his  nature,  as  the  time  of  his  living  seemed  to  lengthen 
itself  by  slow  degrees,  yet  ever  with  uncertain  promise 
of  the  future.  After  the  lapse  of  a  considerable  period, 
his  disease  entirely  disappeared — his  case  being  one  of 
the  earliest  in  which  it  was  proved  that  pulmonary  con- 
sumption could  be  cured.  But  before  this  happy  result 
was  realized  the  law  governing  his  conduct  and  his  emo- 
tions had  been  already  fixed  beyond  change.  The  man 
knew  that  he  must  move  prudently  and  calmly,  if  he 
would  move  forward  at  all.  In  the  later  part  of  his 
career  also,  when  he  was  somewhat  more  than  sixty  years 
of  age,  he  was  attacked  by  a  disease  of  the  heart,  angina 
pectoris,  to  which  he  was  subject  at  intervals  afterwards. 

49 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

This  malady,  like  the  earlier  one,  rendered  caution  and 
moderation  essential  to  the  continuance  of  life.  The 
closing  period  thus  answered  to  the  beginning,  and  the 
call  and  demand  of  both  were  the  same.  We  may  not 
wonder,  therefore,  that,  when  his  circumstances  and 
condition  united  with  the  tendency  of  his  native  char- 
acter, he  became,  as  he  moved  onward,  a  man  of  pru- 
dence, rather  than  of  forth-putting  energy;  a  man  of 
reticence,  rather  than  expression;  a  man  of  sure  move- 
ment, more  than  of  rapid  progress,  and  of  quiet,  but  not 
aggressive  force. 

President  Day's  wisdom  was  displayed  at  the  end  of 
his  public  career  as  truly  as  it  was  throughout  its  course. 
As  he  approached  the  age  of  seventy  he  made  known  to 
the  Faculty  and,  if  I  am  not  in  error,  to  the  Corporation 
also,  his  serious  thought  of  resigning  his  office.  This 
thought  was  connected  with  and  inspired  by  the  feeling 
that  he  was  now  at  the  period  of  life  when  the  duties 
of  his  official  position  might  fitly  be  laid  aside  by  himself 
and  be  passed  over  to  a  successor.  His  colleagues  and 
associates  in  both  bodies — that  of  instruction  and  that 
of  administration — urged  him  to  postpone  the  time  of 
retirement,  and  pressed  upon  him,  with  earnestness,  their 
feeling  that  it  was  for  the  highest  interests  of  the  institu- 
tion that  he  should  remain  yet  longer  at  its  head.  He 
was  finally  persuaded  by  them  to  change  his  purpose, 
and  he  continued  in  his  office  for  three  more  years. 
Then,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three — in  1846 — he  pre- 
sented his  resignation  formally  to  the  Corporation,  and 
refused  their  further  solicitations.  To  one  or  more  of 
the  members  of  the  body,  who  attempted  to  influence 
him,  he  said,  in  his  calm  and  wise  way:  "You  had 
better  let  me  resign  now,  when  I  have  the  intelligence 
to  do  so.  The  time  may  come  when  I  shall  not  have  it, 
but  shall  think  I  am  wiser  than  you  all,  and  than  I  ever 
was  myself  before,"  It  is  related  of  the  Reverend  Dr. 
50 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

James  Walker,  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  distinguished 
among  the  Presidents  of  Harvard  University,  that, 
after  his  resignation  of  his  office,  some  member  of  the 
Governing  Board  of  the  institution  begged  him  to  re- 
consider his  action,  saying  "Nobody  in  the  Corpora- 
tion wants  you  to  resign,"  and  that  the  Doctor  replied, 
"Do  you  wish  me  to  remain  in  the  Presidency  until 
everybody  in  the  Corporation  wants  me  to  resign?" 
The  two  men,  who  were  alike  eminent  in  wisdom,  and 
were  equally  respected  and  beloved  by  both  students  and 
officers,  had  a  grand  ending  of  their  administrative 
career,  because  they  had  the  intelligence  to  perceive  that 
the  time  for  the  ending  had  come ;  the  time  when  no  one 
else  desired  it,  but  when  all  were  full  of  good  wishes 
and  regrets.  They  have  left  behind  them  a  lesson  and 
an  influence  for  their  successors  in  every  generation. 

Our  ideas  of  age  change  as  we  ourselves  advance  in 
years,  and  for  this  reason  we  cannot  altogether  trust 
the  judgments  or  opinions  of  youth  in  this  regard.  But, 
so  far  as  I  am  able  to  recall  the  impressions  of  past  life, 
I  think  I  have  never  seen  a  man  who  appeared  so 
venerable  as  President  Day  did  when  he  resigned  his 
office,  and  afterwards.*  The  age  of  seventy-three  cer- 
tainly meant  very  much  to  us  young  men  of  that  time, 
when,  with  his  slow  and  measured  step  and  enveloped 
in  his  heavy  cloak,  he  passed  us  on  the  streets  or  in  the 
College  yard.  There  were  other  men  in  the  Faculty — 
Professors  Silliman  and  Kingsley,  and  Judge  Daggett, 
the  Kent  Professor  of  Law — who  were  near  his  own 
period  of  life.  Judge  Daggett  must  have  been  older, 
as  his  graduation  preceded  that  of  the  President  by 
twelve  years.  But  no  one  even  of  these  seemed  so  old 

*  The  picture  in  this  volume  is  copied  from  a  portrait  of  Dr.  Day 
painted  when  he  was  fifty  years  of  age  and  twenty-three  years  be- 
fore his  retirement  from  his  office.  This  is  the  only  portrait  of  him 
in  the  possession  of  the  University. 

Si 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  us,  or,  as  I  think,  to  the  citizens  of  the  city.  That 
the  end  of  life  was  not  for  him  far  distant  in  the  future, 
must  have  been  the  thought  of  all  who  looked  upon  him. 
But  he  lived  for  twenty-one  years  after  that  date,  and 
to  a  time  that  was  within  four  years  of  the  close  of 
the  Presidency  of  his  successor,  which  extended  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century.  He  retained  his  mental  powers  in 
their  fullness  to  the  last,  and  was  ever  a  thoughtful  and 
watchful  observer  of  the  life  and  welfare  of  the  College, 
as  well  as  of  the  outside  world.  On  his  retirement  from 
the  Presidential  office,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
Corporation,  and  in  this  relation  to  the  institution  he 
continued  until  about  two  months  before  his  death. 
With  no  anticipation  of  that  event  as  near,  but  with  a 
feeling  that  physical  infirmity  was  increasing  upon  him, 
he  then  asked  that  his  resignation  might  be  accepted. 
His  connection  with  the  College  as  Tutor,  Professor, 
President,  and  member  of  the  Administrative  Board 
had  covered  a  period  of  sixty-nine  years.  The  end  of 
life  came  peacefully  on  the  22d  of  August,  1867 — as 
Dr.  Woolsey  said  of  it,  "With  no  apparent  disease  or 
cause  of  death,  his  lamp  of  life  went  out." 

Surely  the  ordering  of  his  career  was  most  remark- 
able— we  may  even  say,  most  wonderful.  In  the  letter 
addressed  by  Mr.  Charles  Denison  to  Professor  Silliman 
in  1802,  from  which  a  brief  quotation  has  been  made  on 
a  previous  page,  the  writer,  still  referring  to  the  pre- 
carious condition  of  Mr.  Day's  health  at  that  time,  says, 
"That  such  a  man  should  be  cut  off  in  the  very  blossom 
of  life  is  to  the  human  eye  dark  and  mysterious.  We 
must,  however,  submit  to  Him  who  seeth  not  as  man 
seeth."  Mr.  Denison  was  a  college  classmate  of  Pro- 
fessor Silliman,  of  the  year  1796,  and  the  two  were 
intimate  friends  of  President  Day,  who  graduated  in  the 
next  preceding  class.  The  words  of  the  letter  were  the 
heartfelt  expression  of  affection  and  grief  sent  by  one, 

52 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

friend  to  another,  with  reference  to  a  third  who  seemed 
to  be  about  to  die  in  his  earliest  manhood.  The  Biog- 
raphy of  Professor  Silliman  was  placed  in  my  hands  by 
its  author,  Professor  Fisher,  in  1866,  with  a  request  that 
I  would  write  a  review  of  it  for  one  of  the  Quarterlies. 
As  I  read  its  pages  I  found  this  letter,  and  when  I  looked 
at  its  words  I  recalled  the  fact  that,  while  its  writer, 
whose  thoughts  were  so  full  of  sadness  and  of  the  mys- 
tery of  a  life  cut  off  in  early  manhood,  had  after  a  worthy 
and  honored  career  finished  his  earthly  course  forty  years 
before,  and  the  one  to  whom  it  was  written,  and  who 
had  lived  until  he  was  eighty-four,  had  already  been 
dead  for  eighteen  months,  the  young  man  whose  condi- 
tion was  so  alarming  that  life  was  despaired  of,  was 
still  alive  at  the  age  of  ninety-two.  There  is,  indeed, 
"  One  who  seeth  not  as  man  seeth ; "  but  man's  idea  of 
what  He  sees — how  often  it  is  a  strangely  mistaken  one, 
by  reason  of  the  limitations  of  our  human  knowledge  and 
vision.  The  meeting  of  those  three  friends,  after  the 
long  years  had  realized  for  them  their  lives,  and  they 
were  all  united  in  the  upper  kingdom,  must  have  been  a 
thoughtful,  as  well  as  a  happy  one. 

Of  the  Faculty  of  the  Academical  Department,  or 
College,  during  President  Day's  administration  I  shall 
defer  what  I  may  find  myself  able  to  say  until  my  nar- 
rative or  record  of  a  later  period  begins.  I  feel  that 
I  can  properly  do  this,  because  of  the  Professors  who 
held  office  between  1825  and  1852  only  one  died  before 
the  close  of  the  latter  year,  which  was  after  my  entrance 
upon  the  duties  of  the  Tutorship,  and  only  two  before 
1855,  when  I  left  that  position.  I  knew  them  all,  there- 
fore, both  as  a  student  and  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Instruction,  and  I  can  speak  of  them  more  fitly  as  they 
were  in  the  later  of  the  two  periods.  It  will  be  appro- 
priate, however,  for  me  to  call  attention  here  to  the  very 

53 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

fortunate  circumstance  connected  with  the  history  of  the 
institution  during  all  that  period,  that  the  President  and 
his  two  oldest  associates,  Professors  Silliman  and  Kings- 
ley,  were  appointed  to  their  positions  as  professors  in 
the  very  early  years  of  President  Dwight's  administra- 
tion. They  were  all  selected  by  him  for  the  chairs  which 
they  occupied  and,  as  they  were  not  yet  thirty  when  they 
received  their  appointment,  they  grew  up  to  the  full 
maturity  of  their  manly  powers  and  attainments  under 
his  commanding  influence,  as  well  as  in  intimacy  of  asso- 
ciation with  one  another.  When  Dr.  Dwight  died, 
therefore,  and  the  new  President  was  called  to  succeed 
him,  the  counsel  and  aid  of  these  associates  rendered  the 
important  work  to  be  undertaken  much  more  easy  of 
accomplishment  than  it  could  have  been  otherwise.  The 
three  men,  now  about  forty  years  of  age,  were  united  in 
their  views,  and  were  ready  to  co-operate  with  the  most 
hearty  sympathy  in  every  movement  that  seemed  to  be 
for  the  welfare  of  the  College  to  which  they  had  given 
their  love  and  their  lives.  They  did  thus  co-operate  for 
the  whole  period  of  twenty-nine  years — the  President 
relying  with  the  most  entire  confidence  on  the  helpful- 
ness of  the  two  professors,  while  they,  in  their  turn, 
believed  in  his  wisdom  and  prudence,  and  willingly 
trusted  the  interests  of  the  College  to  his  keeping. 


54 


V. 

Student  Life  at  Yale,  1845-49. 

THE  student  life  at  Yale  from  1845  to  l849 
had,  of  course,  many  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  same  life  to-day.  College  undergrad- 
uates are  much  alike  in  all  generations  and  in  all 
nations — so  much  alike  that  the  intelligent  traveler 
in  foreign  lands  cannot  fail  to  recognize  in  the  uni- 
versity communities  which  he  sees  in  them  a  kinship 
to  those  which  he  has  left  behind  him  in  his  own 
country.  But  among  a  people  developing  as  rapidly 
as  ours,  and  in  an  age  of  such  wonderful  changes  and 
progress  as  the  last  fifty  years  have  witnessed,  it  would 
be  strange  indeed  if  all  things  in  the  life  of  college  men 
had  remained  as  they  were  at  the  beginning. 

At  the  time  when  my  classmates  and  myself  entered 
upon  our  college  course,  the  country  was  comparatively 
undeveloped  in  the  matter  of  wealth.  In  regions  like 
Connecticut,  for  example,  where  there  were  no  large 
cities,  men  possessed  of  thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars 
were  regarded  as  having  a  competence,  as  it  was  called, 
while  those  who  had  a  hundred  thousand — and  they 
were  few  in  number — were  considered  rich.  At  this 
time  also,  the  people  had  only  recently — if  indeed  they 
had  as  yet  fully — recovered  from  the  great  financial 
reverses  and  depression  of  the  year  1837.  As  a  con- 
sequence of  these  facts,  we  boys  of  the  class  of  1849 
were,  almost  without  exception,  representatives  of  fam- 
ilies of  quite  moderate  means.  There  were  no  differ- 
ences to  separate  us  in  this  regard,  and  the  thought  of 
what  are  now  considered  luxuries  had  little  opportunity, 

55 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

or  indeed  none  at  all,  of  entering  our  minds.  The  era 
was  certainly  characterized  by  "  plain  living."  The 
ordinary  charges  per  week  at  boarding  houses  and  clubs 
ranged  from  $1.50  to  $2.50 — the  charge  at  the  one  most 
expensive  and  fashionable  boarding-house  in  the  city 
being  only  $3.  Room-rent  was  in  proportion.  The 
college  bills,  so  far  as  tuition  was  concerned,  amounted 
to  the  small  sum  of  eleven  dollars  for  each  term,  or 
thirty-three  dollars  for  the  entire  year,  and  the  other 
items  of  these  bills  were  quite  insignificant.  As  for  the 
furniture  and  other  provisions  for  students'  rooms, 
whether  in  the  college  buildings  or  in  houses  opened  for 
their  occupancy  in  the  city,  moderation  and  absence  of 
expense  were  everywhere  noticeable.  I  remember  visit- 
ing the  apartment  of  two  students  in  Durfee  Hall  about 
the  year  1878,  in  company  with  President  Porter,  who 
was  showing  the  University  buildings  to  the  late  Dean 
Stanley,  and  having  the  thought,  as  I  looked  upon  its 
provisions  for  comfort  and  its  tasteful  decoration,  that 
the  furnishing  of  all  the  rooms  occupied  by  my  class- 
mates in  their  college  days  would  hardly  have  equalled  in 
expense  what  had  been  laid  out  by  these  two  young  men. 
A  quarter  of  a  century,  however,  has  passed  since  then, 
and  the  evidences  of  wealth  are  now  even  more  con- 
spicuous. Of  course,  under  our  circumstances,  there 
was  comparatively  little  difference  between  the  man  who 
had  what  was  then  called  considerable  freedom  in  ex- 
penditures and  the  one  who  had  enough  to  meet  the 
demands  upon  him  only  in  case  he  practised  strict 
economy — and,  indeed,  no  very  marked  distinction  be- 
tween the  latter  and  the  one  who  was  obliged  to  ask 
for  remission  of  tuition  or  to  seek  for  other  pecuniary 
aid. 

We  were  a  democratic  community,  with  small  tempta- 
tion on  the  part  of  any  among  our  number  to  indulge 
in  aristocratic  feeling,  so  far  as  that  feeling  had  relation 

56 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  the  sphere  of  money.  During  a  brief  portion  of  my 
Senior  year — as  my  family  home  was  closed  at  the  time 
— I  took  my  meals  with  a  club  the  members  of  which, 
about  fifteen  in  number,  were  classmates  of  mine.  These 
classmates,  I  think,  were  all  of  them,  with  the  exception 
of  three  or  four,  men  who  either  received  financial  aid 
from  benevolent  funds  or  were  obliged,  for  want  of 
sufficient  means,  to  support  themselves  throughout  their 
course  of  study,  partly  or  wholly,  by  their  own  efforts. 
They  were,  however,  among  the  leading  men  in  the  class 
in  the  different  lines  of  college  success  and  prominence 
— much  more  truly  so  than  most  of  those  who  were 
regarded  as  the  richer  members  of  our  class  brotherhood. 
They  were  most  influential  in  every  way  and  most  highly 
esteemed  by  every  one.  This  fact,  within  my  own  ex- 
perience, is  merely  illustrative.  The  same  thing  was 
true,  in  its  measure,  of  all  college  classes,  and  indeed,  to 
a  large  extent,  of  the  communities  from  which  the  mem- 
bership of  these  classes  was  gathered. 

The  great  change  which  has  made  the  life  of  our 
people  in  the  present  period  so  different,  in  this  matter 
of  wealth  and  all  that  is  connected  with  it,  from  what 
it  ever  was  in  the  earlier  time,  first  manifested  itself,  as 
is  well  known,  near  the  close  of  the  War  of  1861  to 
1865.  In  a  wonderful  way,  and  in  a  measure  beyond 
the  previous  anticipations  of  even  the  most  far-sighted 
among  us,  the  nation,  at  that  time,  began  suddenly  to 
become  rich  and  prosperous.  The  growth  in  prosperity 
was  progressive,  and,  if  we  consider  the  entire  period 
which  has  elapsed  since  that  beginning,  it  has  been  re- 
markably uninterrupted.  We  are  now  in  an  age  of 
abundance,  and  even  of  luxury.  The  old  manner  of  liv- 
ing of  the  fathers  and  grandfathers,  which  was,  as  it 
were,  that  of  a  country  village,  or  of  a  town  of  moderate 
pretensions,  has  been  exchanged  for  that  of  a  large  and 
wealthy  metropolis.  The  accumulations  of  property 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

have  become  great,  and  in  some  cases  enormous,  and  the 
differences  and  separations  between  individual  men,  or 
classes  of  men,  which  are  a  natural  consequence  of  this 
fact,  have  come  to  be  a  marked  feature  of  the  new  age. 
Our  institutions  of  learning,  of  course,  are  participants 
in  this  changed  order  of  things.  "The  rich  and  the  poor 
meet  together"  in  our  college  life,  in  a  certain  sense, 
in  these  now  passing  years,  as  they  did  not  in  the  middle 
years  of  the  century  that  has  just  come  to  its  end.  All 
were  at  that  time  more  nearly  on  a  common  level.  There 
were,  as  already  intimated,  so  few  rich  young  men  in 
the  membership  that  they  were  scarcely  worthy  of  reck- 
oning, as  far  as  the  general  life  of  the  community  was 
concerned. 

The  institution  itself  has  also  increased  in  its  resources 
and  property,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  within  the  half- 
century.  Its  buildings  for  the  accommodation  of  its 
students,  and  the  provisions  and  facilities  for  comfort- 
able living  which  it  furnishes,  are  far  beyond  the  thought 
of  either  undergraduates  or  teachers  in  1849.  We  are 
living  and  moving,  whether  within  the  university  gates 
or  outside  of  them,  in  an  altogether  new  world,  as 
related  to  this  whole  sphere  of  our  life.  For  myself,  I 
may  say  that  I  think  we  are  living  in  a  happier  era — that 
the  new  times  are  better  than  the  old.  Very  few  of  the 
men  of  my  own  class,  or  of  the  classes  that  were  grad- 
uated in  the  years  nearly  contemporaneous  with  my 
college  life,  would  as  I  believe  wish,  if  the  possibility 
were  offered,  to  have  their  successors  in  their  families 
limited  to  the  measure  of  comforts,  in  their  outward 
surroundings,  which  they  themselves  knew  when  they 
were  young.  Certainly  they  do  not  thus  limit  them- 
selves or  their  children  in  their  own  homes. 

We  college  men  were  a  democratic  community,  in 
those  days — in  one  view  of  the  matter — because  there 
was  nothing  to  prevent  our  being  so;  because  there  was 
58 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

nothing  in  our  daily  life  and  experience  to  suggest  the 
thought  of  our  being  anything  else.  There  are  persons 
at  the  present  time — strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  are 
college  graduates,  and  recent  college  graduates — who 
apparently  have  the  idea  that  the  University  community 
cannot,  in  the  new  era,  continue  to  be  democratic  unless 
all  of  the  membership  are  brought  to  the  same  level  of 
expenditures,  and  that  there  is  a  danger  to  the  life  of  the 
democracy  in  the  provision  of  buildings  of  architectural 
beauty  or  of  the  comforts  which  pertain  to  the  better 
class  of  modern  homes.  That  this  view  is  without 
foundation — even  as  the  view,  if  held  by  any  in  the 
past  or  with  reference  to  the  past,  that  the  old  democratic 
life  was  wholly  dependent  for  its  existence  on  the  limita- 
tions which  pertained  to  all  alike,  was  utterly  baseless, — 
is  manifest  so  soon  as  we  get  the  true  idea  of  what  the 
democratic  spirit  is.  The  men  of  fifty  years  ago  had 
this  spirit,  not  because  there  were  no  hindrances  in  the 
way  of  its  entrance  into  their  lives,  but  because,  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Yale  fraternity,  they  inherited  from  the 
fathers  of  the  earlier  days  of  the  College  history  the 
great  foundation  principles  of  the  true  Yale  life.  Had 
the  inspiration  had  no  deeper  source  than  that  which 
was  found  in  accidental  or  temporary  surrounding  cir- 
cumstances, it  would  have  been  worthless  as  a  moving 
force  for  noble  living. 

The  same  thing  is  true  to-day.  It  will  be  so  always. 
If  the  democratic  spirit  animating  our  University  is  now, 
or  ever  becomes  in  the  future,  so  weak  and  unmanly  that 
it  cannot  endure  inequalities  in  resources  or  expenditures 
— in  the  means  of  satisfying  the  desire  for  special  com- 
forts or  even  luxuries,  or  gratifying  the  artistic  taste — it 
will  be  unworthy  of  its  origin;  it  will  have  contradicted 
its  earlier  self.  The  old  spirit  was  one  that  estimated 
men  according  to  their  manhood,  and  not  according  to 
their  surroundings  or  possessions.  It  believed  in  the 

59 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

superiority  of  the  man  to  his  accidents.  But  it  did  not 
demand  that  the  possessions  or  accidental  things  of  all 
in  the  community  should  be  exactly  the  same.  It  was 
a  manly,  and  not  pusillanimous  spirit.  It  did  not  abide 
in  continual  fears  lest  some  new  danger  might  be  threat- 
ening its  further  existence,  or  manifest  itself  by  constant 
appeals  for  help  that  all  obstacles  or  hindrances  might 
be  put  out  of  the  way.  I  rejoice  that  we  men  of  1849 
had  it  as  truly  as  we  had,  and  that  it  still  remains  with 
us.  I  have  no  apprehensions  as  to  its  losing  its  vital 
force  or  passing  away,  if  the  men  of  the  present  and 
the  coming  time  will  recognize  for  and  in  themselves  the 
essence  of  its  life-power,  and  not  mistake  it  for  what  it 
is  not. 

As  a  natural  consequence  of  the  condition  of  the 
country  with  reference  to  wealth  and  all  things  bearing 
upon  it,  the  opportunities  opening  to  young  men  of 
college  education  in  the  commercial  and  financial  spheres 
were,  in  those  earlier  days,  comparatively  few  and  rare. 
Moreover,  the  general  sentiment  of  business  men  did  not 
favor  the  employment  of  such  young  persons  in  their 
enterprises.  They  believed  that  the  training  for  busi- 
ness life  should  be  in  business  houses — a  training  con- 
nected with  practical  experience — and  that  the  studies 
and  discipline  of  a  college  course,  whatever  value  they 
might  have  in  relation  to  other  callings,  had  the  tendency 
to  render  the  youth  unfit  for  meeting  the  special  demands 
of  their  own  department  of  life's  work.  A  marked 
change,  in  this  regard,  has  taken  place  within  the  last 
ten  or  fifteen  years,  and  new  views  of  the  whole  subject 
are  rapidly  gaining  ground  among  commercial  men. 
But  there  were  few,  if  indeed  any  signs  of  this  change 
until  a  time  considerably  later  than  our  college  period. 
The  field  of  science  also,  as  a  field  for  life-work,  was 
scarcely  open  at  that  date.  The  beginnings  of  the  new 
60 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

age  were  visible  to  thoughtful  minds,  but  the  realization 
of  what  we  see  to-day  was  only  in  the  dim  and  distant 
future. 

The  young  men  who  studied  in  our  colleges  in  those 
years  were,  accordingly,  almost  altogether  of  the  classes 
that  were  directed  by  the  will  or  judgment  of  their 
parents,  or  were  moved  by  their  own  impulses,  towards 
professional  life  in  one  or  another  of  what  were  called 
the  three  learned  professions.  Of  these  three  profes- 
sions, that  of  the  law  and  that  of  the  ministry  drew  to 
themselves  by  far  the  larger  number — the  students  of 
medicine  being  then  mainly  persons  who  had  not  pursued 
.college  studies.  Thirty-five  of  the  ninety-four  class- 
mates who  graduated  in  1849  became  lawyers;  twenty- 
five  studied  theology;  seven  entered  medical  schools; 
while  only  nine  chose  for  themselves  a  mercantile  or 
business  life.  We  were  in  this  sense — and  the  same  was 
the  case  with  other  classes  of  our  era — a  homogeneous 
body  in  a  far  higher  degree  than  the  students  of  more 
recent  times,  since  the  occurrence  of  the  changes  to  which 
allusion  has  been  made,  and  the  wide-reaching  develop- 
ment of  the  elective  system  that  has  been  contempo- 
raneous with  them.  We  were,  as  I  may  say,  men  of 
common  purpose,  satisfied  with  the  studies  prescribed 
for  us,  which  seemed  adapted  to  prepare  us  for  the 
professional  courses  that  would  open  afterwards,  and 
happy  in  the  thought  of  the  scholarly  and  educated  life 
to  which  we  had  been  called. 

We  were  not  more  studious,  in  the  measure  of  our 
studying,  than  our  successors  in  these  later  years.  We 
were,  however — perhaps  I  may  say  with  truth — more 
exclusively  studious,  or  more  given  to  study  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  other  things,  than  they  are.  We  had  fewer 
other  things  to  draw  off  our  attention  or  interest  our 
minds,  and  we  knew  nothing,  in  our  experience,  of  that 
student  life  in  presence  of  the  public,  if  I  may  so 
61 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

describe  it,  which  is  now  so  conspicuous  in  all  our  institu- 
tions. I  am  sure  that  we  thought  more  of  the  intellectual 
in  comparison  with  the  physical  in  education  than  college 
men,  or  even  their  parents,  do  to-day.  It  may  be,  I 
think,  that  we  dwelt  more  in  the  inner  life.  We  were 
indolent  and  careless,  many  of  us;  as  boys,  and  men  also, 
often  are.  We  were  not  praiseworthy  beyond  those 
who  have  followed  us.  But  by  reason  of  the  community 
of  thought  and  purpose,  of  which  I  have  spoken  as 
connected  with  the  educational  ideas  of  the  time,  we  had 
a  certain  oneness  or  harmony  of  intellectual  life  that 
cannot  be  so  easily  realized  amid  the  multitude  of  studies 
and  of  interests  now  appealing  to  the  tastes  of  different 
minds.  This  oneness  or  harmony  was  a  good  thing  in 
itself.  It  was  helpful  in  developing  that  friendly  senti- 
ment, or  class  feeling,  uniting  the  brotherhood,  which 
has  been  so  marked  and  admirable  a  characteristic  of 
our  Yale  life  throughout  the  century.  It  had,  perchance, 
an  influence  in  rendering  the  sentiment  a  thoughtful  one 
— pertaining  to  the  deeper  mind  and  soul.  But  it  was 
not  essential  to  the  existence  of  the  sentiment,  which  is 
as  manifest  now  as  it  ever  was.  I  have  called  attention 
to  it  only  because  it  was  one  of  the  things  which  marked 
our  college  years,  and  in  the  experience  of  which  we  had 
a  privilege;  not  a  privilege  greater  than  others  have 
enjoyed  in  more  recent  times,  but  a  peculiar  one  which 
had  its  own  gift  for  our  class  life  and  our  individual 
lives. 

Another  influence  for  unity  in  college  sentiment  and 
feeling,  at  the  time  when  we  were  students,  had  its  origin 
in  the  large  societies,  which  included  in  their  member- 
ship all  the  undergraduates.  There  were,  indeed,  three 
of  these  societies,  and  there  were  rivalries  between  the 
two  larger  ones — the  third  was  limited  almost  exclusively 
to  students  from  the  Southern  States.  But  notwith- 
62 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

standing  the  divisions  connected  with  them,  and  their 
friendly  strifes,  they  had  nothing  of  that  exclusiveness 
or  separating  tendency  which  so  often  pertains  to 
smaller,  and  especially  to  secret  clubs,  consisting  of  only 
fifteen  or  twenty  members.  Every  one  could  enter  these 
large  associations.  Their  privileges  were  open  to  all 
alike,  and  all  were  welcomed  heartily  to  a  share  in  them. 
The  fact  that  there  were  two  or  three  societies,  and  that 
the  student  in  his  earliest  college  days  made  his  choice 
between  them,  and  gave  himself  to  the  one  which  he  had 
chosen,  affected  but  in  a  very  slight  degree  the  freedom 
of  the  class  intercourse  and  friendship.  Where  one-half 
of  the  entire  academic  community  was  found  in  one 
society,  and  one-half  in  another,  it  was,  of  course,  impos- 
sible for  either  body  to  confine  itself  to  narrow  social 
limits.  The  condition  of  things  was  as  if  all  the  com- 
munity had  been  in  one  association,  or  as  if  there  had 
been  no  society  at  all,  except  that  which  was  coincident 
with  the  individual  classes. 

The  purpose  of  these  large  societies,  also, — that  of 
cultivating  the  power  of  speaking  in  public  discussions 
or  debates, — was  quite  in  accordance  with  a  unity  of 
spirit  in  the  community.  The  era — like  those  which 
preceded  it,  but  unlike  those  that  have  followed — was  an 
era  of  debating.  Great  questions  bearing  upon  the 
development,  and  even  the  permanence,  of  the  national 
life,  were  assuming  immense  importance  in  the  public 
thought,  and  the  universal  belief  was  that  they  could  not 
be  settled  except  by  open  and  free  discussion.  The  young 
men  of  the  time,  it  was  held,  must  be  educated  to  meet 
these  questions,  not  only  in  the  privacy  of  their  own 
minds,  but  in  the  vigorous  and  fierce  conflicts  of  opinion 
which  were  sure  to  arise  in  large  assemblies  and  in  the 
presence  of  multitudes.  An  education  which  did  not 
include  debating  was,  consequently,  felt  to  be  incomplete. 
It  was  an  education  which  might  discipline  and 

63 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

strengthen  the  mental  faculties,  but  which  did  not  give 
the  power  to  use  them  effectively  in  the  sphere  of  public 
life.  The  retiring  scholar  could,  indeed,  be  permitted 
to  keep  silent,  but  the  man  of  the  world  must  know  how 
to  speak,  and  to  speak  in  controversy  with  an  antagonist. 
The  students,  accordingly,  were  moved  as  by  a  common 
impulse — an  impulse  starting  from  within  themselves, 
and  also  coming  to  them  from  the  world  outside — to 
give  their  efforts  and  enthusiasm  to  these  organizations 
which  seemed  to  be  so  useful,  and  which  even  supple- 
mented in  a  most  desirable  way  the  education  derived 
from  the  college  studies.  They  were  strengthened  by 
this  impulse  in  the  unity  of  their  life. 

The  limitations  of  numbers  in  the  academic  body, 
and  in  the  several  classes,  may  also  be  mentioned  as 
having  had  a  unifying  influence.  The  entire  member- 
ship of  the  undergraduate  College  in  1849  was  but  little 
larger  than  that  of  the  class  of  1900  at  the  beginning 
of  its  course.  The  individual  classes  of  the  period  num- 
bered only  about  one  hundred.  The  acquaintance  of  the 
whole  body  of  students,  except  for  certain  hindrances 
naturally  arising  from  class  distinctions,  might  as  a 
consequence  have  been  formed  at  that  time,  by  each 
young  man,  almost  as  easily  as  that  of  all  one's  own 
classmates  can  be  formed  now.  Certainly,  it  is  a  matter 
of  much  less  difficulty  to  gain  a  measure  of  what  may  be 
called  intimate  knowledge  of  a  company  of  a  hundred 
members,  than  of  one  which  consists  of  three  hundred 
and  fifty.  We  of  the  earlier  era  had  this  advantage,  as 
connected  with  the  fact  that  we  were  a  comparatively 
small  brotherhood.  The  stimulating  influence  which 
comes  from  a  larger  community,  however,  we  could  not 
fully  know. 

As  a  result  of  all  these  causes,  and  of  the  general 
influences  of  the  academic  life  at  Yale,  we  became  a 
64 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

united  body  soon  after  the  beginning  of  our  course,  and 
we  grew  stronger  in  our  sentiment  and  sympathy  as  a 
fraternity  with  each  advancing  year.  There  were  di- 
visions among  us — sometimes  between  parties,  sometimes 
between  individuals.  But  there  were  none,  I  think,  that 
survived  the  college  period;  and,  in  this  matter  of  class 
spirit  and  kindly  feeling,  I  doubt  whether  there  has  ever 
been,  in  the  two  centuries,  a  company  of  students  within 
the  gates  of  the  institution  more  thoroughly  one  in 
heart  and  mind,  than  the  company  which  met  together 
as  strangers  in  1845,  and  bade  each  other  a  loving  fare- 
well in  1849. 

Let  me  now  recall  some  other,  and  perhaps  minor 
things,  connected  with  the  life  of  our  college  years. 
The  subjects  which  we  used  to  discuss  in  the  larger 
societies — how  momentous  some  of  them  seemed  to  us; 
how  far  away  in  the  distance  of  the  past  they  seem  now ! 
How  remote  we  then  thought  any  possible  decision  of 
them  must  be;  how  strange  we  are  prone  to  think  now 
that  the  decision  could  ever  have  been  in  doubt !  The 
great  question  of  slavery  was,  at  that  time,  uppermost 
in  all  minds.  The  irrepressible  conflict  was  indeed 
already  beginning,  though  many  did  not  fully  appreciate 
the  fact;  and  the  dangers  of  the  future  were  threatening 
on  every  side.  What  would  be  the  result  of  the  con- 
troversy in  the  coming  time?  What  ought  to  be  the 
result?  Would  the  slave-power  ever  be  overcome? 
Would  the  nation  ever  be,  in  the  true  and  full  sense,  a 
free  nation?  This  was  the  problem  of  the  century. 
Few  of  us  dared  to  hope  that  it  would  be  solved  within 
the  limits  of  the  century.  We  college  boys  discussed 
the  question.  We  contended  about  it.  We  exercised 
and  cultivated  our  oratorical  powers.  We  divided  into 
parties,  according  to  our  residences  whether  in  the  north 
or  south,  and  our  prejudices  whether  on  the  conservative 

65 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

or.  progressive  side.  We  did  everything  that  was  open 
to  us  to  do,  as  we  thought.  But  we  could  not  foresee 
the  early  future,  or  what  it  had  of  promise  in  itself. 
And  now  it  is  all  a  matter  of  history — of  a  by-gone 
generation,  as  it  were — and  the  young  college  boys  of 
to-day,  and  of  the  recent  days,  cannot  comprehend  the 
interest  with  which  we  bring  back  to  our  remembrance 
the  old  uncertainties  of  the  struggle  and  the  blessing  of 
the  grand  result. 

Or  again — to  mention  other  questions — how  strange 
it  seems  to  us  now,  to  recall  our  old  discussions  respecting 
the  gold  of  California;  whether  its  discovery  was  likely 
to  be  of  advantage  or  disadvantage  to  the  welfare  of  the 
country.  We  thought  then  that  AVC  might  not  live  to 
see  the  question  settled.  Or — looking  abroad — how 
eagerly  we  discussed  the  possible  results  of  the  revolu- 
tionary movements  of  1848  in  Europe;  or,  again,  look- 
ing backward,  how  earnestly  we  argued  the  matter  of 
England's  treatment  of  the  first  Napoleon.  These  were 
questions  of  the  present  or  the  past,  which  had  a  living 
interest  for  us  then.  The  events  of  1848  occurred  in 
our  Junior  year.  The  first  great  migration  following 
the  Gold  fever,  as  it  was  called,  took  place  when  we 
were  Seniors.  The  battle  of  Waterloo  was,  at  that 
time,  one  of  the  last  great  battles  of  history,  and  Ameri- 
can travelers  in  Europe  visited  the  battle-field  with 
eagerness  of  desire.  The  fall  of  Napoleon  and  his  fate 
were  not  things  of  which  we  had  only  read  in  books 
relating  to  the  past,  but  they  were  matters  of  which  our 
fathers  had  told  us  as  belonging  within  their  own  life- 
time. It  is  hard  for  us  now  to  persuade  ourselves  that 
they  were  ever  nearer  to  us  than  they  are  to  the  college 
men  of  these  later  years.  But  they  were  the  old  ques- 
tions and  the  old  events,  and  we  have  lived  to  see  the 
new  men  and  the  new  times. 
66 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

As  for  the  smaller  societies,  there  were  several  of  them 
already  existing  at  the  beginning  of  our  college  years. 
There  were  more  when  we  graduated,  for  our  Class 
established  three  new  ones  for  itself;  one  in  the  Fresh- 
man, another  in  the  Sophomore,  and  a  third  in  the  Senior 
year.  We  solved  in  this  way  a  difficult  problem  which 
is  sometimes  presented  in  the  academic  community,  and 
which  has,  even  recently,  occasioned  much  perplexity  and 
excitement.  We  made  the  natural,  and  probably  the 
only  satisfactory  provision  for  the  worthy  men  who 
could  not,  by  reason  of  the  limitations  of  numbers,  find 
a  place  in  the  membership  of  the  societies  already  in 
existence.  These  three  societies,  originating  with  us, 
were  handed  down  to  the  classes  which  followed  our 
own,  and  had  a  vigorous  and  successful  life  for  a  con- 
siderable period  of  years.  They  are  now,  however,  and 
for  a  long  time  have  been,  altogether  of  the  past.  The 
Freshman  Society  ceased  to  exist,  through  a  kind  of 
wasting  of  its  own  vital  forces.  The  one  belonging  to 
the  Sophomore  year  met  its  fate,  as  did  the  others  of 
its  class,  through  a  decree  of  the  College  which  abolished 
all  alike ;  while  the  one  for  the  Senior  Class  passed  away 
I  scarcely  know  how — it  was  followed,  however,  after 
a  time,  by  another  still  existing,  which  though  having, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  connection  with  it  whatever,  yet 
in  a  certain  sense  may  be  said  to  have  taken  its  place. 

All  these  smaller  societies  were  of  what  is  called  the 
secret  order.  Some  of  them — so  far  as  my  own  class 
was  concerned — seemed  to  me  to  be  of  comparatively 
little  value  to  our  intellectual  or  social  life.  I  would 
not  affirm  that  this  was  due  to  weaknesses  inherent  in 
the  organization  of  the  different  societies.  It  may  have 
been,  and  no  doubt  was  in  large  measure,  the  result  of 
circumstances  peculiar  to  our  membership  and  our  era. 
They  had,  in  general,  very  considerable  power  and 
influence  in  the  College  community — especially  those 
67 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

pertaining  to  the  Senior  year — but  not  as  much,  by  any 
means,  as  they  have  to-day.  They  had  no  conspicuous 
buildings  devoted  to  their  uses.  There  was  no  public 
demonstration  of  any  kind  connected  with  the  choice  or 
admission  of  new  members.  The  entire  movement  of 
their  life  from  year  to  year  was  recognized  by  all  as 
fitly  and  completely  limited  within  its  own  sphere.  The 
other  and  larger  associations  satisfied,  in  a  measure,  the 
desire  for  fellowship  and  friendly  union.  For  these 
reasons  there  was  less  of  eager  curiosity  to  know  what 
the  small  societies  offered  to  their  membership,  and  a 
less  universal  desire  for  participation  in  it.  I  think 
that  comparatively  few  of  my  classmates  had  any  over- 
burdening anxiety  as  to  their  own  election  even  into  the 
Senior  fraternities.  When  the  question  for  each  and  all 
was  settled,  the  favored  ones  were  happy  and  satisfied, 
but  those  to  whom  the  new  experience  was  denied  were 
not  greatly  disappointed  or  disheartened. 

The  existence  and  the  growth  in  numbers  and  in 
influence  of  the  smaller  and  secret  societies  have  been 
regarded  by  many  persons,  at  different  times,  as  among 
the  chief  causes  of  the  decline  and  passing  away  of  the 
larger  associations.  From  my  own  long-continued  and 
close  observation  of  college  life  at  Yale,  I  am  convinced 
that  this  is  not  the  fact.  The  larger  associations  de- 
pended for  their  permanent  existence  and  success  on  the 
old-time  sentiment  with  respect  to  debating  and  the  old 
admiration  for  the  oratory  of  the  earlier  part  of  the 
century.  The  two  things  on  which  their  life  rested 
passed  away,  especially  in  New  England  and  its  neigh- 
borhood; and,  as  if  by  a  necessity,  the  life  passed  with 
them.  The  old  style  of  oratory  of  the  legal  profession 
is  utterly  of  the  by-gone  days.  That  which  then  char- 
acterized the  pulpit  has  mainly  disappeared.  Even  that 
which  was  displayed  in  legislative  and  Congressional 
assemblies  has  undergone  such  changes  that  the  few 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

genuine  specimens  of  the  original  style,  which  are  occa- 
sionally exhibited,  excite  a  feeling  of  amusement  rather 
than  of  respect.  We  are  in  a  new  era,  and  college  men 
debate  now  with  a  view  to  prizes,  and  more  after  the 
manner  of  newspaper  discussions  than  in  that  of  the  old 
debating  halls. 

That  the  smaller  societies — according  to  the  ordinary 
rule  and  condition  of  their  life — brought  their  member- 
ship into  closer  relations  of  personal  friendship,  than 
the  larger  ones  could,  was,  of  course,  the  fact.  In  this 
way,  their  growth  may  have  been  injurious  to  these  large 
associations,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  they  were  so,  in 
any  considerable  degree,  at  the  critical  point  of  the  his- 
tory— for  they  had  existed  in  numbers  and  in  strength 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  or  more  before  the  critical 
time  came,  and  no  harmful  effect  seemed  to  have  become 
manifest. 

But — turning  aside  from  this  question — there  can  be 
no  doubt  as  to  the  positive  influence  of  the  smaller  bodies 
on  the  development  of  friendship  among  their  members. 
This  was  especially  true  of  the  societies  pertaining  to 
the  Senior  year, — and  naturally  so,  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  in  our  College,  as  contrasted  with  many  others,  the 
active  membership  in  the  fraternities  of  the  earlier  years 
ceased  when  those  years  came  to  their  end.  The  men 
who  were  united  in  the  fraternity  fellowship  as  Seniors 
came  together,  accordingly,  as  a  small  and  selected 
company,  in  the  latest  period  of  their  course,  when  their 
minds  and  characters  had  developed  to  the  highest  point 
of  college  life;  when  the  great  questions  of  their  future, 
with  the  seriousness  attendant  upon  them,  were  rising 
before  all  alike;  and  when  the  very  approach  of  the  end 
of  the  happy  period,  which  they  had  found  so  full  of 
blessing,  was  bringing  a  sadness  of  spirit  that  could  not 
but  make  the  heart  open  itself  with  tenderness  and  sym- 
pathy. They  met  at  the  outset  in  their  new  relations, 

69 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

and  continued  to  meet  as  the  days  and  weeks  passed  by, 
with  readiness  to  give  and  receive  the  best  of  influence 
in  their  power.  They  met,  and  continued  to  meet,  with 
the  utmost  freedom  in  the  interchange  of  their  deepest 
and  most  helpful  thoughts;  with  an  intimacy  which  car- 
ried with  it  the  promise  of  the  future;  and  with  a 
generosity  of  soul  that  enriched  each  one  as  it  grew 
within  himself,  while  it  also  enriched  all  others  as  it 
went  outward  in  its  gifts  from  him  to  them.  They 
entered  thus  into,  and  abode  for  a  year  of  manly  youth- 
ful life  in,  a  thoughtful,  helpful,  inspiring,  elevating, 
character-building  friendship  with  men  whom  they  could 
know  with  a  very  deep  and  penetrating  knowledge.  If 
the  companies  selected  were  only  what  it  was  fitting  that 
they  should  be,  one  could  not  wonder  that  the  hearts  of 
all  were  moved  by  the  happy  experiences,  and  afterwards 
by  the  happy  memories. 

The  company  which  I  thus  met  for  my  Senior  year, 
and  my  association  with  which  made  me  glad  that  I 
had  been  offered  the  privilege  of  membership  and  had 
accepted  it,  was  one  well  fitted  to  be  helpful  to  me.  In 
some  views  of  the  matter  at  least,  I  needed  for  my  best 
and  happiest  growth  the  peculiar  help  that  was  given. 
I  may  not  tell  of  what  we  did  as  we  met  together.  I 
cannot  recall  much  of  what  we  talked  about,  or  thought, 
in  our  communion  with  each  other.  The  details  of  the 
old  life  are  gone.  But  the  man,  and  the  men, — what 
they  have  been,  and  what  they  are,  in  the  inmost  and 
noblest  manhood,  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  influences  of 
that  fellowship,  even  as  it  Is  of  the  love  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  early  home  and  the  later  home. 

The  unity  of  the  larger  and  broader  life  was  a  great 

blessing  of  my  college  years.    The  unity  of  the  narrower 

and  more  limited  life  was  an  equal,  or  even  greater 

blessing.     It  was  my  good  fortune  to  enjoy  the  gifts 

70 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

which  came   from  both,   and  to  make  them,   in  their 
effective  force,  a  permanent  possession. 

There  was  another  influence  which  had  a  certain  help- 
fulness, in  our  Senior  year,  with  reference  to  the  matter 
of  our  friendly  association.  It  was  not  of  advantage 
to  us  in  all  lines  of  our  college  life,  but  was  so  in  some 
measure  in  this  one  line.  I  refer  to  the  arrangements 
of  the  studies  of  the  year  which  gave  us  less  work  to 
do,  and  therefore  afforded  more  leisure  for  friendly 
association,  than  the  system  of  these  later  times  allows. 
In  the  period  of  Dr.  Day's  Presidency — certainly,  in  the 
closing  part  of  it — the  Senior  class  had  no  early  morning 
recitations,  before  the  breakfast  hour,  and  a  very  moder- 
ate number  at  other  hours.  The  same  was  the  case  in 
the  first  year  of  Dr.  Woolsey's  administration.  A 
change  was  made,  introducing  the  recitation  before 
breakfast  for  this  class,  at  the  beginning  of  the  academic 
year  1 847-48 — that  is  to  say,  the  Senior  year  of  the  class 
preceding  my  own.  I  well  remember  the  disturbance  of 
the  equanimity  of  that  class,  and  the  emphasis  of  their 
opposition  to  "the  abandonment  of  immemorial  usage" 
and  the  imposition  of  unwonted  hardships.  The  good 
old  times  of  privilege,  and  of  elegant  Senior  leisure, 
were  evidently  gone  by  forever;  and  as  for  the  rights 
of  man — of  educated  man — what  was  there  to  be  said? 

But,  as  has  been  oftentimes  the  case  in  the  college 
world,  when  a  new  year  had  begun,  and  a  new  class, 
which  had  adjusted  its  mind  to  the  change  as  fully  estab- 
lished, entered  upon  the  work  of  its  closing  year,  all  were 
reconciled  to  the  inevitable — indeed,  all  thought  the  in- 
evitable very  reasonable.  We  Seniors  of  1849  went 
about  our  daily  business  as  if  the  arrangements  and  rules 
had  always  been  in  existence.  Strange  to  say — so  op- 
posite was  our  sentiment  to  that  of  the  class  preceding 
ours — we  thought  of  ourselves  as  having  a  satisfactorily 

71 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

easy  and  pleasant  year.  At  the  opening  of  the  autumn 
term  we  found  that  we  were  called  upon  for  six  exercises 
a  week  at  the  early  morning  hour — one  of  them  being  a 
lecture.  These  exercises  were  in  the  departments  of 
Mental  Philosophy  and  History,  one  half  of  them  in 
each.  We  had  a  lecture  every  day,  at  noon,  from  the 
elder  Professor  Silliman  on  Chemistry,  and  in  the  after- 
noons of  four  days  we  had  lectures  on  Oratory,  or  exer- 
cises in  the  study  of  Demosthenes  on  the  Crown.  These 
last-mentioned  exercises  were  two  in  number  weekly.  In 
the  first,  the  professor  translated  a  brief  section  of  the 
oration  to  the  students,  and  in  the  second,  they  were 
expected  to  translate  the  same  section  to  him.  The 
translations  given  by  the  students  were  naturally  made 
without  special  difficulty,  and  were  easily  brought  into 
correspondence  with  those  of  the  professor.  The  studies 
of  the  two  remaining  terms  were  arranged  much  after 
the  same  manner,  and  the  demands  upon  the  student's 
powers  and  efforts  were  scarcely  more  exacting.  I  re- 
member saying,  one  day,  to  the  leading  scholar  of  the 
class — in  allusion  to  the  complaints  made  in  the  previous 
year — that,  if  the  Seniors  had  ever  had  less  work  re- 
quired of  them  than  we  were  called  to  do,  it  might  have 
been  better  to  dismiss  students  from  all  connection  with 
college  duties  at  the  close  of  the  Junior  year,  only  asking 
them  to  return  for  their  diplomas  at  the  appointed  time. 
But  if  I  had  entered  the  Class  of  1 848,  as  I  have  already 
said  that  I  expected  to  do,  I  should  no  doubt  have  shared 
their  feeling,  and  complained  of  the  setting  aside  of 
customs  and  the  invasion  of  ancient  freedom. 

A  college  community  is  a  peculiar  one  in  many  lines. 
It  is  so  in  the  matters  kindred  to  that  of  which  I  am 
writing.  In  one  sense,  college  students  are  thoroughly 
progressive.  In  another,  they  are  extremely  conserva- 
tive. An  immemorial  custom  can  be  established  in  a 
shorter  time  in  a  college  than  anywhere  else ;  and,  when 
72 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

established,  the  resistance  to  any  change  is,  at  the  outset, 
more  urgent  and  more  unanimous  than  in  any  other  place. 
The  ease  with  which  a  custom  becomes  immemorial  is 
due,  no  doubt,  to  the  rapidly  changing  membership  of 
the  community.  The  Freshman  of  to-day  knows  sub- 
stantially nothing  of  the  immediate  past.  The  Senior 
knows  little  of  what  preceded  his  own  college  generation. 
The  life  of  the  existing  brotherhood  is  an  intensely 
present  life,  as  if  nothing  different  had  gone  before,  and 
nothing  new  or  better  ought  to  come  afterward.  But  if 
the  new  thing  is  actually  introduced,  and  thus  becomes  a 
fact  that  cannot  be  avoided,  the  same  rapidity  of  change 
in  the  community  renders  the  acceptance  of  the  new, 
after  a  little  time,  a  matter  of  less  difficulty;  and  the 
agitations  of  one  academic  year  or  generation  readily 
pass  into  the  quietness  and  peacefulness  of  the  next. 
Illustrative  examples  might  be  given  in  abundance.  One 
of  the  most  memorable  in  the  recent  years  was  that 
connected  with  the  removal  of  the  old  College  fence, 
at  the  corner  of  Chapel  and  College  streets.  The  re- 
moval was  rendered  necessary  in  order  that  Osborn  Hall 
might  be  erected.  But  it  was  opposed  with  the  utmost 
vigor.  So  strong  was  the  feeling,  that  even  graduates 
whose  college  life  preceded  by  many  years  the  introduc- 
tion of  what  may  be  called  "the  fence  custom,"  were  led 
to  maintain  that  the  institution  might  well  give  up  all 
other  uses  of  that  most  valuable  part  of  the  grounds  for 
all  time,  in  order  that  the  "old  things"  should  not  pass 
away.  A  short  period  elapsed,  however,  and  no  one 
remained  in  the  undergraduate  community  who  had  ever 
seen  the  fence  which  had  been  thought  so  essential. 
The  life  of  the  new  men  was  adjusted  to  the  new  condi- 
tions, and  the  dangers  that  were  supposed  to  threaten 
the  continuance  of  Yale  sympathies  and  friendships  were 
seen  to  have  passed  away. 

But  to  return  to  the  relation  of  our  Senior  studies  to 

73 


MEMORIES      OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

our  friendly  association,  from  which  this  digression  has 
been  made; — of  course,  we  had  more  leisure  for  such 
association  by  reason  of  the  arrangements  described, 
than  would  have  been  possible  under  a  different  system. 
As  this  comparatively  greater  leisure,  also,  coincided  in 
time  with  that  more  full  development  of  our  acquaint- 
ance with  one  another  which  pertained  to  our  last  year 
of  college  life,  it  contributed  in  an  appreciable  measure 
to  the  unity  of  the  class  sentiment  and  feeling. 

In  this  connection,  I  may  likewise  allude  to  a  special 
time  of  leisure,  or  a  special  privilege  in  this  regard, 
which  we  enjoyed  in  common  with  those  who  went 
before  us,  but  which  was  continued  only  for  a  brief 
period  after  our  graduation.  The  arrangement  of  the 
year  for  the  Seniors  placed  the  Class  or  "Presentation" 
Day,  as  it  was  called,  six  weeks  before  the  public  Com- 
mencement. All  studies  for  the  class  ceased  at  Presenta- 
tion Day,  and  the  six  following  weeks  were  a  vacation 
season.  With  the  freedom  of  communication  between 
various  and  even  distant  parts  of  the  country  to  which 
we  are  now  accustomed,  such  a  season  would,  of  course, 
find  the  students  widely  scattered  during  almost  its  entire 
continuance.  But  in  those  days,  the  facilities  for  travel- 
ing were  comparatively  limited — the  railroad  from  New 
Haven  to  New  York,  for  example,  was  not  completed 
until  near  the  middle  point  of  our  Senior  year — and  the 
return  of  most  of  the  classmates  to  their  homes  for  so 
brief  a  time  was,  accordingly,  impracticable.  As  a  con- 
sequence, almost  all  of  the  company  remained  at  the 
College  during  these  weeks  which,  it  will  be  remembered, 
were  in  the  midst  of  the  summer,  when  the  city  was  in 
its  greatest  beauty  and  the  words  "beneath  the  elms" 
had  their  deepest  meaning. 

Under  such  circumstances  and  conditions — with  free- 
dom from  all  college  responsibilities;  with  a  gratifying 
sense  of  realized  results;  with  just  enough  thought  of  the 

74 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

approaching  end,  to  add  to  our  mutual  affection,  and 
just  enough  feeling  that  the  end  was  not  yet  at  hand,  to 
make  us  cheerful;  with  a  little  mingling,  I  fear  I  must 
add,  of  a  too  human  satisfaction  in  the  knowledge  that 
the  under-class  men  were  still  called  to  rise  early  in  the 
morning,  and  to  study  Philosophy  and  Greek  and 
Mathematics,  while  we  were  not — we  gave  ourselves  to 
the  enjoyment  of  each  others'  society  and  to  the  happi- 
ness of  men  whose  graduation  was  assured.  Years  after- 
ward, the  words  of  a  young  student  of  the  Class  of 
1862  were  reported  to  me  by  a  friend  in  that  class. 
He  said,  "Yale  College  would  be  a  most  interesting  and 
delightful  place,  if  only  all  the  literary  and  religious  ex- 
ercises were  omitted."  If  there  was  any  truth  in  this 
remark,  we  classmates  of  1849  had  an  experience  of  it  in 
those  lovely  summer  days,  when  all  of  the  College  life 
was  over,  and  yet  all  was  not  over. 

No  such  arrangement  of  the  year,  as  I  suppose,  would 
be  either  practicable  or  wise,  in  the  present  era.  Even  if 
it  could  be  made  with  wisdom  as  related  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  study,  the  season  of  leisure  could  not  realize  for 
those  to  whom  it  was  given  the  old  rich  results,  because 
the  men  would  not  linger  on  the  College  grounds,  nor 
spend  the  days  in  the  final  cementing  of  friendships  and 
in  strengthening  one  another  for  the  coming  time.  But 
memory  goes  back  to  what  belonged  to  the  bygone  life 
and  recalls  with  gladness  the  happy  things  which  it 
offered  to  us.  So  my  remembrance  rests  upon  that  brief 
pleasant  time;  and  with  a  satisfaction  which  has  no  in- 
termingling of  selfishness,  for  I  know  that  the  Seniors 
of  to-day  would  not  enjoy  the  season  as  we  did,  if  the 
opportunity  were  given  them.  They  would  hasten  to 
other  scenes,  and  other  friendly  meetings. 


75 


VI. 

Religious   Exercises   and  Preaching   of   the  Period- 
Course  of  Study  and  Daily  Student  Life. 


THE  religious  exercises  of  the  College  in  my  stu- 
dent days,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards, 
included  two  Church  services,  with  preaching, 
on  Sunday,  and  also  morning  and  evening  prayers  on 
that  day,  as  well  as  on  all  the  other  days  of  the 
week.  The  College  preacher  was  Professor  Eleazar 
T.  Fitch,  who  was  elected  to  the  Livingston  Pro- 
fessorship, as  it  was  then  called,  in  the  year  1817, 
a  few  months  after  the  death  of  the  first  Presi- 
dent Dwight.  At  the  time  of  the  entrance  of  my 
class  into  the  academic  community,  he  had  occupied  his 
position  for  twenty-eight  years  and  was  about  fifty-four 
years  of  age.  In  accordance  with  the  usage  which  had 
been  handed  down  from  previous  generations,  he  de- 
voted the  morning  service  of  each  Sunday  to  the  pre- 
sentation of  theological  doctrines — thus  giving,  in  the 
course  of  two  or  three  years,  a  system  of  theology  in  the 
form  of  sermons.  These  "system  sermons"  were 
preached,  again  and  again,  during  successive  periods,  so 
that  every  class  heard  all  of  them  within  the  time  of 
its  academic  career,  and  some  of  them  even  more  than 
once.  In  the  afternoons,  the  sermons  were  of  a  more 
general  and  practical  character,  and  were  of  greater  in- 
terest to  many  of  the  hearers  because  they  seemed  to  be 
less  technically  scientific.  It  was  the  common  custom  of 
the  period,  to  which  educated  and  Christian  families 
almost  universally  conformed,  to  attend  Church  services 


PROFESSOR   ELEAZAR   T.    FITCH 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

twice  on  the  days  set  apart  for  public  worship;  and,  as 
the  great  majority  of  the  students  were  members  of  such 
families,  there  was  comparatively  little  complaint  with 
reference  to  the  rules  of  the  College  in  this  regard. 
Morning  and  evening  prayers  were,  also,  so  thoroughly 
in  accordance  with  the  habits  of  religious  households  in 
those  days,  that  it  was  not  considered  strange  that  the 
same  daily  custom  should  exist  in  an  institution  of  learn- 
ing, or  that  attendance  upon  such  exercises  should  be  re- 
quired. It  would  rather  have  seemed  strange,  if  it  had 
been  otherwise. 

Dr.  Fitch  was  called  to  his  position  in  the  College 
pulpit  when  he  was  only  twenty-six  years  old.  and  shortly 
after  he  had  completed  his  course  of  study  in  the  An- 
dover  Theological  Seminary.  He  was,  however,  re- 
garded as  a  young  man  of  remarkable  ability  and 
promise,  and  great  hopes  were  entertained  for  him  at  the 
beginning  of  his  public  career.  These  hopes  were 
abundantly  justified  in  the  earliest  period  of  his  official 
life.  It  was,  indeed,  a  severe  test  for  the  powers  of  a 
youthful  minister,  to  be  asked  to  equal  the  demands  of  a 
cultured  audience  of  professors  and  students  who  had 
either  listened  with  admiration  to  the  discourses  of  Dr. 
Dwight,  or  heard  of  them  from  their  fathers  and  friends. 
But  Professor  Fitch  met  the  test  successfully,  and  for 
many  years  he  was  held  in  the  greatest  esteem  as  a 
preacher  by  the  entire  academic  community — his  ser- 
mons being  highly  appreciated  because  of  the  intellectual 
force  manifested  in  them  and  the  spiritually  stimulating 
influence  by  which  they  were  characterized.  He  was 
certainly,  in  his  mental  gifts,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  whom  the  College  Faculty  has  ever  had  in  the  circle 
of  its  membership.  He  was  a  theologian,  a  metaphysi- 
cian, a  preacher,  a  poet,  and  a  musician.  He  also  pos- 
sessed rare  mechanical  skill,  and  was  a  lover  of  nature  in 
no  ordinary  degree.  Considered  in  the  full  measure  and 

77 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  variety  of  his  powers,  he  had  no  superior  among  the 
eminent  scholars  and  teachers  who  were  associated  with 
him.  I  believe  this  to  be  the  judgment  of  those  who 
were  most  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  whole  circle 
of  men.  He  had,  however,  a  nervous  intensity  or  an  in- 
tense nervousness  which  greatly  interfered  with  his 
steady  and  quiet  working  power.  For  this  reason,  the 
composition  of  sermons  was  often  a  matter  of  the  great- 
est mental  and  even  physical  strain,  and  sometimes  the 
delivery  of  a  discourse  was  an  occasion  of  noticeable 
embarrassment.  For  this  reason,  also,  during  a  large 
portion,  if  not  indeed  the  whole  of  his  more  public  life, 
he  felt  himself  unable  to  speak  before  large  audiences 
extemporaneously,  or  without  a  fully  prepared  manu- 
script. Probably  no  able  preacher  in  the  course  of  New 
England  history  has  ever  experienced  this  impeding  in- 
fluence in  the  way  of  his  most  wide-reaching  and  com- 
plete success  in  larger  measure  than  did  he  throughout 
his  ministry. 

As  a  result  in  part  of  this  peculiar  element  in  his 
mental  constitution,  and  in  part  of  the  custom  of  the 
time  with  reference  to  the  repetition  of  the  sermons  on 
theology,  as  well  as  of  the  rapid  succession  of  classes 
which  rendered  the  repetition  of  other  sermons  more 
easy  and  natural,  Dr.  Fitch  became  less  productive,  in 
the  matter  of  new  discourses,  as  he  advanced  in  years. 
In  consequence  of  this  fact,  his  power  over  his  student 
audiences  gradually  diminished  after  the  middle  of  his 
official  career.  In  my  own  college  days  it  was  not  as 
great  as  it  had  been  at  an  earlier  period.  Even  in  my 
time,  however,  his  discourses  were  stimulating  and  awak- 
ening to  every  intellectual  and  thoughtful  man  among 
the  undergraduates,  and  their  power  for  the  whole  com- 
pany was  clearly  manifest  as  soon  as  any  other  preacher 
occupied  the  pulpit.  The  visiting  preacher's  sermon  was 
immediately  subjected  by  the  student  mind  to  a  com- 
78 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

parison  with  those  of  the  Professor,  and  to  a  very  strict 
and  severe  judgment.  The  decision  was  rarely  in  favor 
of  the  stranger. 

I  remember  a  remark  of  the  well-known  historical 
lecturer  of  the  last  generation,  Dr.  John  Lord,  when 
speaking  of  a  celebrated  French  woman  of  the  eighteenth 
century  who  lived  to  a  very  advanced  age.  "She  retained 
her  powers  in  their  fullness,"  he  said,  "as  indeed  most 
people  do  who  exercise  their  powers."  If  the  good  Pro- 
fessor had  not  been  prevented,  by  the  causes  mentioned, 
from  exercising  his  powers  continually  in  writing  new 
sermons,  as  he  was  ready  to  use  them  in  other  lines,  he 
might  well  have  been  equally  effective  as  a  preacher  to 
the  end  of  his  career.  Occasionally,  however,  he  put 
forth  his  energies  in  this  way,  and  at  one  time,  near  the 
close  of  my  college  life  or  soon  afterward,  he  did  so  for 
months  together — and  with  an  effect  upon  his  hearers 
which  showed  that  there  were  still  present  in  him  the 
strength  and  vigor  of  the  earlier  days. 

The  preaching  of  that  period  in  the  College  pulpit 
differed  in  many  respects  from  that  to  which  we  have 
become  accustomed  in  these  recent  years.  Even  when  it 
limited  itself  to  the  more  practical  sphere,  it  was  in  a  far 
higher  degree  argumentative  than  it  now  is — as  if  the 
discussion  of  questions  and  the  defense  of  positions  taken 
in  connection  with  them  were  regarded  as  essential. 
Theological  doctrine,  though  it  might  not  be  pressed 
directly  upon  the  hearer's  attention  as  the  chief  end  and 
purpose  of  a  discourse,  had  always  a  certain  marked 
prominence  given  to  it  in  its  bearing  upon  the  theme 
under  consideration.  The  setting  forth  of  the  way  of 
salvation  for  the  individual  man  was  never  lost  sight  of, 
and  the  necessity  of  moving  forward  in  that  way,  if  one 
desired  to  attain  assured  hope,  rarely  failed  to  be  sug- 
gested by  the  development  of  the  thought,  when  it  was 
not  distinctly  declared  or  urged.  Sermons  had,  if  I  may 

79 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

so  express  it,  a  more  philosophical  character.  They 
corresponded  more  fully,  in  this  regard,  to  the  lectures 
which  were  given  in  other  departments  of  instruction, 
and  assumed  on  the  part  of  those  who  listened  to  them 
an  interest  in  thoughtful  discussion.  The  preacher  had, 
in  general  if  not  indeed  always,  the  feeling  that  his 
audience,  though  mainly  ^composed  of  young  men  just 
approaching  maturity,  could  be  fitly  addressed  after  the 
manner  in  which  he,  and  others  of  his  profession,  were 
wont  to  speak  to  those  who  were  farther  advanced  in 
age.  It  was  an  intelligent  audience,  open  in  the  same 
way,  if  not  indeed  in  the  same  full  measure,  to  religious 
ideas  and  Christian  thinking,  and  therefore  did  not  need 
to  be  dealt  with  as  if  its  life  and  thought  were  peculiar 
to  itself  or  apart  from  the  world  outside.  For  these 
reasons,  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  spiritual  effect  of 
the  preaching  as  compared  with  that  of  the  present  era, 
I  think  its  stimulating  influence  for  the  intellectual  pow- 
ers was  greater  and  more  constant.  It  had  a  force  for 
the  education  of  the  man  which  has,  in  some  degree, 
been  lessened  or  lost.  This  loss,  as  it  seems  to  me — at 
least,  when  considered  in  itself  alone,  and  aside  from 
the  matter  in  its  other  relations — is  much  to  be  regretted. 
Dr.  Fitch's  discourses  demanded  and  excited  mental 
activity  on  the  student's  part  as  truly  as  did  the  teachings 
or  lectures  of  any  other  instructor  whom  he  was  called  to 
meet  in  his  academic  career.  I  think  that,  in  this  re- 
gard, they  were  helpful  in  no  ordinary  measure,  and  a 
real  blessing,  to  the  men  who  were  my  college  contempo- 
raries. They  were,  no  doubt,  too  argumentative  and 
had  more  of  what  I  have  ventured  to  call  the  philosoph- 
ical character  than  one  could  have  desired.  They  were 
liable  at  times,  perchance,  to  the  charge  made  against 
them  by  a  young  man  in  one  of  the  classes  that  followed 
my  own,  when  he  said  it  was  a  hardship,  after  having 
had  mathematics  all  the  week,  to  be  obliged  to  have  it 
80 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

again  on  Sundays.  But  they  had  in  them  thoughts  and 
a  course  of  thought  which  were  not  only  interesting  and 
suggestive,  but  in  a  special  sense  disciplinary  for  the 
mind — a  good  thing,  surely,  for  a  college  youth  who  is 
to  live  in  the  sphere  of  educated  life.  And  as  for  mathe- 
matics, I  cannot  help  feeling  that  it  might  be  even  a 
pleasure  to  have  it  introduced  occasionally  by  a  preacher 
on  Sundays  in  this  era,  as  a  relief  from  the  constantly 
repeated  allusions  to  athletics  to  which  we  have  been 
obliged  to  accustom  ourselves.  The  young  men  of  the 
academic  company  would  be  almost  ready,  I  think,  to 
unite  with  me  in  this  sentiment. 

Sermons  were  ordinarily  much  longer  then  than  they 
are  to-day.  If  the  preacher  continued  his  discourse  for 
fifty  minutes,  the  hearer  did  not  become  wearied  or  in- 
attentive, unless  indeed  the  thoughts  presented,  or  the 
manner  of  presenting  them,  proved  to  be  devoid  of 
interest.  Even  young  persons  and  college  students  had 
much  of  the  same  patience  in  receiving  instruction  from 
the  pulpit  which  they  had  when  it  came  from  the  teach- 
er's desk.  The  custom  of  the  time  allowed  a  similar 
lengthening  of  discourse  in  both  cases;  and  custom,  as 
we  know,  has  great  determinative  force  in  all  such  mat- 
ters. Within  the  last  few  years  a  complete  change  has 
been  realized,  and  the  college  preachers  now  appear  to 
regard  themselves  as  limited  to  one-half  of  the  time 
which  was  freely  granted  to  their  predecessors.  They 
seem  sometimes,  indeed,  to  vie  with  each  other  in  the 
brevity  of  their  discourses.  As  illustrative  of  the  change 
I  may  mention  the  fact,  of  which  Professor  Thacher 
told  me  not  long  after  my  graduation,  that  Dr.  Fitch, 
as  they  walked  homeward  from  the  Chapel  together, 
was  wont  to  make  some  remark  of  an  apologetic  char- 
acter in  case  the  service  had  come  to  its  end  before  twelve 
o'clock.  Such  an  apology  would  hardly  be  expected 
now.  There  were  times — especially  in  the  winter  sea- 
Si 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

son  and  in  the  days  of  the  Old  Chapel — when  some  of 
those  who  were  younger  then  than  they  now  are  would 
have  been  quite  contented,  if  the  Doctor  himself  had  not 
felt  that  it  was  called  for.  I  shall  never  forget  the 
impression  made  upon  my  own  mind,  on  a  very  cold 
Sunday  in  the  period  of  my  tutorship,  when  the  preacher, 
after  the  clock  had  already  struck  the  noon  hour,  an- 
nounced that  he  would  close  his  discourse  with  a  word 
of  admonition.  But  sermons  of  a  thoughtful  character 
meant  more  when  they  were  longer,  and  were,  as  I  have 
said,  more  influential  to  the  end  of  strengthening  the 
mind,  if  not  also  to  that  of  developing  true  character 
and  the  soul's  life.  If  they  were  sometimes  too  long  in 
the  old  days,  they  are  often  too  short  in  the  later  time — 
too  short,  as  they  were  then  too  long,  for  the  best 
results. 

As  connected  with  their  length,  and  their  argumenta- 
tive and,  oftentimes,  doctrinal  character,  the  pulpit  dis- 
courses of  my  college  era  were,  in  general,  much  more 
definitely  marked  in  their  divisions  and  progress  of 
thought — the  divisions  were,  as  we  may  say,  more  boldly 
and  openly  set  forth  by  the  preacher  as  he  moved  on- 
ward. In  this  more  recent  period  with  which  we  are 
now  familiar,  the  divisions  and  subdivisions  are  intro- 
duced by  some  easy  turn  of  thought  or  expression,  so 
that  the  hearer  is  borne  forward  to  the  new  almost  with- 
out being  aware  that  he  is  leaving  the  old.  But  then 
everything  was  made  as  definite  and  distinct  as  possible. 
The  extreme  abruptness  of  the  preachers  of  a  previous 
generation  had,  indeed,  mainly  passed  away — an  abrupt- 
ness which  must  often  have  startled  their  audiences,  as 
it  would  seem,  when  at  the  close  of  their  discussion  of 
a  subject  they  uttered  the  word  "Remarks,"  or  "Im- 
provement," and  thus  proceeded  to  make  the  practical 
application  of  the  truth.  But  it  would  have  been  deemed 
a  loss  for  the  plainness  of  the  argument  and  the  lasting 
82 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

impression  of  the  discourse,  if  the  leading  thoughts,  in 
their  succession,  had  not  been  marked  by  numbers.  The 
numerical  designation  was  also  generally  extended  to 
the  minor  divisions  subordinate  to  the  main  "  heads,"  as 
they  were  called,  and  in  this  way  the  plan  of  the  sermon 
was  given  to  the  hearer,  to  the  end  that  he  might  keep  it 
in  his  mind. 

In  Dr.  Fitch's  sermons,  as  I  remember  them,  there 
were  commonly,  if  not  always,  three  leading  divisions — 
which  seemed,  as  it  were,  to  be  homiletically  essential  to 
the  true  idea  or  ideal.  In  the  development  of  the 
thought  pertaining  to  each  of  these,  there  might  be  three 
or  more  secondary  suggestions  or  proofs  tending  to 
establish  and  confirm  the  main  proposition.  These  be- 
ing all  numbered,  like  the  more  prominent  sections,  as 
first,  second,  etc.,  it  sometimes  happened  that  the 
enumeration  became  burdensome,  or  that  the  hearer,  in 
case  of  his  momentary  inattention,  lost  the  immediate 
bearing  of  the  thought.  The  very  mark  that  was  de- 
signed to  indicate  the  stages  of  the  progress  might  thus 
fail  of  accomplishing  its  purpose.  Particularly  was  this 
the  case,  where  the  preacher  distinctly  mentioned,  as 
the  Doctor  not  infrequently  did,  that  his  closing  thought 
under  each  leading  division  was  the  final  one.  The  re- 
lation of  finality  to  the  end  of  a  discourse  was  thus  made 
obscure  to  the  youthful  listener,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
he  followed  the  speaker's  words  less  carefully,  if  not 
with  less  willingness,  than  he  might  otherwise  have  done. 
A  classmate  of  mine,  as  I  remember,  once  awakened 
much  sympathy  on  the  part  of  his  associates — though 
they  were  at  the  moment  passing  severe  criticism  upon 
the  discourse  of  an  officer  of  another  institution  which 
had  just  been  preached  in  the  College  Chapel — by  the 
single  remark:  "There  was,  at  any  rate,  one  good  point 
in  the  preacher's  address.  When  he  said,  Finally,  the 
sermon  was  more  than  half  finished." 

83 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

All  these  things,  however,  were  of  minor  importance 
and,  as  they  are  referred  to,  they  only  serve  to  indicate 
the  changes  in  style  and  manner,  or  in  the  presentation  of 
thought,  by  which  the  progress  of  time  is  marked.  Dr. 
Fitch's  discourses,  when  viewed  in  relation  to  the  history 
of  preaching  in  our  country,  may  fitly  be  regarded  as 
having  a  prominent  position.  Though  still  under  the 
influence  of  the  past  in  no  inconsiderable  measure,  they 
moved  aside  from  and  beyond  the  older  order,  and  thus 
opened  the  way,  as  we  may  say,  towards  that  which  is 
best  in  our  modern  era.  The  theological  element  per- 
taining to  them,  conspicuous  as  it  was,  was  united  with 
the  oratorical  and  imaginative.  The  poetic  character  of 
the  writer's  mind  often  exhibited  itself  in  them  as  clearly 
as  did  its  argumentative  power.  The  movement  of  the 
emotional  nature  was,  in  its  appropriate  place,  no  less 
earnest  than  that  of  the  intellect  as  it  gave  its  energy  to 
the  defense  of  doctrine  and  truth.  The  persuasive  force 
of  the  Gospel  and  its  loving  call  to  the  souls  of  men 
were  never  lost  sight  of  or  forgotten. 

Preachers  from  outside  of  the  College  were,  in  those 
days,  only  occasionally  invited  to  address  the  students  in 
connection  with  the  Sunday  services  of  the  Chapel.  The 
Professor  of  Divinity  fulfilled  the  duties  of  his  office 
with  almost  as  much  regularity  as  was  characteristic  of 
his  colleagues  in  their  several  spheres  of  instruction.  His 
position  was,  in  its  demands  in  this  respect,  regarded  by 
himself  and  by  others  as  similar  to  theirs.  It  was  that 
of  a  teacher,  as  well  as  that  of  a  minister.  From  time  to 
time,  however,  when  circumstances  seemed  to  make  it 
desirable,  or  in  case  of  some  special  religious  interest 
which  was  the  occasion  of  unusual  efforts,  men  of  greater 
or  less  eminence  were  called  to  speak  in  the  Professor's 
place  and,  in  this  way,  to  give  their  helpful  influence  in 
the  carrying  forward  of  his  work.  Some  of  these  men 
were  the  more  prominent  pastors  of  churches  in  the 
84 


MEMORIES     OF     VALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

city  or  its  vicinity.  Others  were  preachers  from  more 
remote  places  who  had  gained  for  themselves  high  honor 
and  widely  extended  reputation.  They  belonged,  of 
course,  to  the  older  generation,  as  compared  with  our- 
selves, and  many  of  them  were  considerably  advanced  in 
years.  Among  the  more  noted  ones  whom  I  recall  with 
a  pleasant  remembrance  were  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher;  Presi- 
dent Nott,  of  Union  College;  Dr.  Francis  Wayland, 
President  of  Brown  University;  Dr.  William  Adams,  of 
New  York,  and  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell.  In  the  later  part 
of  my  undergraduate  career  and  in  the  period  of  my 
tutorship,  Dr.  Bushnell,  as  I  think,  awakened  greater 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  student  company  than  any 
other  even  of  the  most  distinguished  preachers.  The 
originality  of  his  mind;  his  striking  presentation  of  his 
thoughts  and  their  peculiar  richness;  his  style  and  use  of 
language  which  were  so  characteristic  of  the  man  and 
were  so  fitted  to  excite  attention;  the  very  differences  of 
his  views  from  those  of  most  of  his  contemporaries  of 
his  own  order,  and  the  new  visions  of  truth  which  he 
opened  and  made  beautiful — all  alike,  and  in  their  union 
with  each  other,  rendered  him  exceedingly  attractive  to 
young  men  whose  intellectual  powers  were  waking  to 
manly  activity  and  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  personal 
thinking.  The  years  from  1849  to  l%55  were  those  in 
which  the  greatest  public  excitement  was  manifested  in 
connection  with  what  were  regarded  by  many  as  his 
heretical  and  dangerous  theological  opinions.  Possibly 
we  college  men  listened  to  him  with  a  certain  curiosity, 
and  with  more  strict  attention,  because  of  this  fact.  But 
his  sermons,  which  he  gave  to  us,  had  very  little,  if  any- 
thing, in  them  that  could  have  been  disturbing  even  to 
the  most  sensitive  minds.  They  dealt  rather  with  ques- 
tions pertaining  to  the  deeper  experience  of  the  soul  and 
with  the  beginning  and  growth  of  Christian  life  in  the 
85 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

individual  man.    In  all  this  sphere  of  thought  they  were 
eminently  suggestive  and  quickening. 

The  difficulty  which  Professor  Fitch  experienced  in 
extemporaneous  speaking  was  so  manifest  and  so  marked 
that  he  felt  himself  inadequate  to  much  of  the  pastoral 
work,  which  is  generally  regarded  as  pertaining  to  the 
preacher's  office.  He  hesitated  to  undertake  the  services 
connected  with  the  minor  meetings  of  the  Church,  and 
shrank  from  the  duty  of  addressing  such  meetings  in  an 
informal  way.  Happily  his  inability,  as  he  conceived  it, 
in  this  department  of  religious  effort  was  abundantly 
supplemented  by  Professor  Chauncey  A.  Goodrich,  who 
had  eminent  gifts  qualifying  him  for  these  special  duties 
and  was  always  ready  to  answer  to  the  call  which  they 
made.  Professor  Goodrich,  a  classmate  of  Dr.  Fitch 
and  appointed  at  the  same  time  to  a  permanent  office  in 
the  College,  became  in  reality  the  College  pastor,  while 
Dr.  Fitch  was  the  College  preacher. 

Every  student  of  the  years  between  1840  and  1858 
whose  mind  turned  with  interest  towards  religious  sub- 
jects will  remember  the  voluntary  meetings  in  what  was 
called  the  Theological  Chamber,  in  the  Lyceum  build- 
ing, which  were  held  on  Sunday  evenings,  immediately 
after  the  supper  hour,  and  which  were  addressed  by 
Professor  Goodrich.  He  was  always  present  at  these 
meetings  and  always  conducted  the  service.  While  as  a 
preacher  and  sermonizer  he  was  marked  by  no  special 
ability  or  attractiveness,  he  had  extraordinary  power  in 
the  line  of  speaking  called  for  in  such  assemblies.  He 
was  most  interesting  and  quickening  in  his  thought,  most 
impressive  in  his  manner  and  bearing,  and  most  urgent, 
as  well  as  eloquent,  in  his  presentation  of  Christian  truth 
and  duty.  In  his  language,  as  well  as  his  delivery,  he 
was  in  a  high  degree  rhetorical,  but  his  rhetoric  was  in 
harmony  with  the  taste  and  spirit  of  the  time  and  was 
86 


PROFESSOR    CHAUNCEY   A.    GOODRICH 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

very  effective  in  its  influence  upon  undergraduate  stu- 
dents. He  had  indeed,  in  a  harmless  way,  some  of  the 
arts  of  the  orator.  These  were,  however,  not  manifest 
enough  to  affect  his  audiences  unfavorably.  They  les- 
sened his  power  somewhat  with  those  that  heard  him 
continuously  after  their  graduation,  but  the  greater  part 
of  the  young  men  who  listened  to  his  words  were  still  in 
their  college  years.  He  was  a  great  religious  force, — 
and,  if  I  may  speak  of  him  as  compared  with  any  other 
single  individual,  he  was  the  great  religious  force  in  the 
student  world. 

During  the  years  to  which  I  am  now  making  special 
reference — indeed,  during  all  the  years  from  1839  to 
the  time  of  his  death,  in  1860 — Professor  Goodrich  was 
connected  with  the  Faculty  of  the  Theological  Depart- 
ment; the  chair  which  he  held  was  that  of  Pastoral 
Theology.  From  1817  to  1839,  on  the  other  hand,  he 
had  been  a  member  of  the  Academical  Faculty,  as  the 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Oratory.  The  transference 
from  the  one  chair  to  the  other  was  a  very  happy  circum- 
stance as  bearing  upon  his  influence  with  the  undergradu- 
ate students,  and  the  acceptableness  of  his  pastoral  work 
among  them.  In  my  college  days,  and  for  a  very  con- 
siderable period  before  and  after  them,  his  relation  to 
the  academic  classes  was  entirely  free  from  any  adminis- 
trative or  disciplinary  element.  He  met  us,  indeed,  as  a 
lecturer  for  a  few  weeks  in  our  Senior  year,  but  it  was 
only  as  any  gentleman  from  another  department  of  the 
institution,  or  from  the  outside  world,  might  come  to  us 
for  a  little  time  with  interesting  addresses  on  some  special 
subjects.  We  were  not  even  reminded  of  the  govern- 
mental idea  by  being  called  upon  for  an  examination 
on  the  topics  which  he  discussed.  Otherwise — and  apart 
from  these  lectures — we  knew  him  simply  as  a  pastor; 
and,  in  this  relation,  not  as  a  man  who  had  been  formally 
appointed  to  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  the  office, 

87 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

but  as  one  who,  out  of  love  for  the  service  and  interest 
in  the  young  men  of  the  College,  had  voluntarily  taken 
the  work  upon  himself — the  work  of  doing  them  good 
in  the  sphere  of  Christian  living. 

It  was  a  remarkable  change  from  the  earlier  period, 
when  he  was  an  Academical  Professor.  At  that  time  he 
had  not  only  the  ordinary  official  connection  with  the 
undergraduate  community  which  professors  and  instruct- 
ors always  have,  but  also  in  a  certain  peculiar  sense  and 
measure  he  was  the  impersonation,  as  it  were,  of  the  gov- 
ernment in  its  relation  to  the  daily  life  of  the  students. 
He  had  thus  the  most  difficult  and  trying  position  which 
any  member  of  a  College  Faculty  can  hold,  and  one  in 
which  a  man,  unless  he  has  extraordinary  wisdom  and 
tact,  is  almost  necessarily  exposed  to  the  danger,  often- 
times, of  awakening  unfavorable  feeling.  The  ideas 
of  the  period  with  respect  to  strictness  of  discipline,  to 
which  I  have  alluded  on  an  earlier  page,  as  well  as  the 
peculiar  character  of  the  Professor's  rhetorical  nature, 
rendered  the  exercise  of  such  tact  and  wisdom  in  his 
case  almost  impossible;  and  the  result  was  more  or  less 
disaffection  on  the  part  of  the  classes  of  students  that 
were  most  ready  to  infringe  upon  the  College  rules  or, 
in  any  way,  come  into  conflict  with  the  authorities.  The 
new  condition  of  things  which  was  realized  in  the  later 
years  might  well  have  been  a  source  of  satisfaction  and 
happiness  to  him.  It  was  certainly  a  blessing  to  the 
institution  in  its  highest  life.  So  completely  had  it  be- 
come new,  when  my  classmates  and  myself  entered  upon 
the  experiences  of  the  academic  world,  that  we  could 
scarcely  appreciate  what  the  older  men  told  us  of  their 
times. 

The  excellent  Professor  had  the  two  elements  in  his 
constitution — the  strictly  and  minutely  governmental 
one,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  and  the  truly  large-minded  one  of 
earnest  and  Christian  desire  for  the  good  of  those  who 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

were  even  the  most  erring.  He  was  in  the  better  and 
happier  sphere  of  working,  both  as  related  to  himself 
and  others,  in  the  later  period  of  twenty  years  when  the 
second  of  the  two  elements  had  its  full  sway,  than  in  the 
earlier  one  when  the  possibilities  or  duties  of  his  office 
gave  greater  opportunity  for  the  intermingling  of  the 
first.  The  wonderful  success  and  usefulness  and  Chris- 
tian power  of  the  later  part  of  his  honored  career  bore 
emphatic  testimony  to  the  wisdom  of  separating  the 
pastoral  office  from  the  one  that  has  within  itself  the 
details  of  government  and  discipline. 

The  two  men — Professors  Fitch  and  Goodrich — if 
they  could  have  been  united  in  their  powers  of  writing 
and  speaking;  of  formal  and  informal  address;  of  fit- 
ness for  the  preacher's  and  pastor's  office  combined, 
would  have  made  one  man  of  a  very  remarkable  order. 
But  it  was  better,  perhaps,  for  the  highest  interests  of 
the  College  that  they  were  not  thus  united,  but  that  each 
did  his  own  work  in  his  own  sphere.  It  was  fortunate, 
indeed,  for  the  institution  that  the  two  lived  and  labored 
together  for  so  many  years,  and  that  their  influence 
entered  into  the  lives  of  so  many  of  the  graduates  of 
Yale. 

With  reference  to  the  studies  of  the  undergraduate 
college  course  limitation  was  manifest  everywhere  in 
those  days,  as  contrasted  with  the  wide  range  and  the 
abundant  freedom  of  the  present  time.  Elective  courses 
were  offered  only  in  the  third  term  of  the  Junior,  and 
the  second  term  of  the  Senior  years.  These  courses,  ex- 
tending over  twelve  or  fourteen  weeks  in  each  year,  were 
merely  supplemental  to  the  required  studies,  to  which  the 
main  portion  of  the  time  was  devoted.  Two  hours  a 
week — that  is,  two  recitation  hours,  with  the  preparation 
which  these  called  for — were  the  largest  number  as- 
signed to  them,  and  the  student,  accordingly,  could  not 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

select  for  himself  more  than  a  single  course  out  of  the 
few  that  were  offered.  The  studies  thus  opened  to 
choice,  in  the  last  part  of  my  college  life,  were  Modern 
Languages,  Select  Latin  or  Greek,  Hebrew,  Practical 
Astronomy,  and,  in  the  mathematical  department, 
Analytical  Geometry  and  the  Calculus.  A  special  vol- 
unteer class  was  formed  in  1849  f°r  tne  study  of  Mill's 
Logic. 

By  far  the  largest  number  in  each  successive  class 
made  choice  of  one  of  the  Modern  Languages  for  their 
elective  course;  and  most  of  these  selected  French  as  the 
language  to  be  studied.  The  College,  in  the  last  two 
years  of  my  undergraduate  life,  had  no  teacher  of  Ger- 
man in  its  board  of  instruction.  There  was  compara- 
tively little  disposition  at  that  time  to  acquire  the  knowl- 
edge of  Italian  or  Spanish.  These  languages  were  also 
regarded  as  demanding  more  diligent  study  than  the 
French.  Moreover,  the  time  when  the  student  was  first 
called  upon  to  make  his  selection  was  the  summer  term, 
and  for  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  many  were  disin- 
clined to  take  upon  themselves  any  burdensome  work 
additional  to  that  which  was  called  for  in  the  line  of  the 
required  studies. 

The  range  of  studies  in  the  prescribed  courses  was  also 
limited,  as  compared  with  what  has  been  known  in  more 
recent  years.  Not  only  has  remarkable  progress  in  de- 
velopment, and  in  methods,  been  made  in  connection 
with  all  branches  of  learning,  but  the  opening  of  oppor- 
tunities for  the  student  has  been  widened.  Studies  which 
were  not  included  in  the  curriculum  have  received  an 
appropriate  place,  and  books  which  were  closed  even  to 
Seniors  have  been  put  into  the  hands  of  Freshmen.  As 
a  single  illustrative  instance  related  to  books,  Thucydi- 
des'  History  had,  in  1899,  a  place  among  the  studies  of 
the  earliest  terms  of  the  course,  while  in  my  own  college 
period  it  could  not  be  studied  at  all,  except  privately  in 
90 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  undergraduate  years  or  with  some  college  officer  after 
graduation. 

The  theory  of  the  education  of  that  time  was  clearly 
stated  in  the  catalogue  of  the  College,  in  a  passage  which 
I  will  venture  to  quote.  "The  object  of  the  system  of  in- 
struction to  the  undergraduates  is  not  to  give  a  partial 
education,  consisting  of  a  few  branches  only;  nor  on  the 
other  hand  to  give  a  superficial  education,  containing  a 
little  of  almost  everything;  nor  to  finish  the  details  of 
either  a  professional  or  a  practical  education;  but  to 
commence  a  thorough  course,  and  to  carry  it  as  far  as 
the  time  of  the  student's  residence  will  allow.  It  is  in- 
tended to  maintain  such  a  proportion  between  the  dif- 
ferent branches  of  literature  and  science,  as  to  form  a 
proper  symmetry  and  balance  of  character.  In  laying 
the  foundation  of  a  thorough  education,  it  is  necessary 
that  all  the  important  faculties  be  brought  into  exercise. 
When  certain  mental  endowments  receive  a  much  higher 
culture  than  others,  there  is  a  distortion  in  the  intellectual 
character.  The  powers  of  the  mind  are  not  developed 
in  their  fairest  proportions  by  studying  languages  alone, 
or  mathematics  alone,  or  natural  or  political  science 
alone.  The  object,  in  the  proper  collegiate  department, 
is  not  to  teach  that  which  is  peculiar  to  any  one  of  the 
professions;  but  to  lay  the  foundation  which  is  common 
to  them  all.  The  principles  of  science  and  literature  are 
the  common  foundation  of  all  high  intellectual  attain- 
ments. They  give  that  furniture,  and  discipline,  and 
elevation  to  the  mind,  which  are  the  best  preparation  for 
the  study  of  a  profession,  or  of  the  operations  which  are 
peculiar  to  the  higher  mercantile,  manufacturing,  or  agri- 
cultural establishments." 

The  introduction  and  very  wide  extension  of  the 
elective  system,  together  with  the  changes  in  public  senti- 
ment of  which  that  system  is  in  part,  no  doubt,  the  cause 
and  in  part  the  effect,  have  resulted  in  a  different  theory 

91 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

as  to  education  which,  at  present,  is  finding  much  favor. 
Young  men  should  be  educated,  it  is  now  said,  for  their 
special  work  in  life  even  from  the  beginning  of  their 
college  years,  and  all  studies  may  be  equally  disciplinary 
— one,  therefore,  or  a  few,  may  be  as  useful  as  a  larger 
number  covering  a  wider  range.  But  the  old  theory 
had  a  certain  reasonableness  and  wisdom  in  it,  whatever 
may  be  its  final  fate,  and  it  worked  good  results  in  the 
lives  of  the  men  whose  early  training  was  under  its 
influence. 

The  college  examinations  of  our  time  were,  like  those 
for  admission  to  the  Freshman  class,  oral,  and  not 
written  examinations.  They  occurred  at  the  end  of  each 
term.  At  the  close  of  the  Junior  year  there  was  one 
which  covered  the  studies  of  the  entire  course  up  to  that 
point.  They  were  not,  by  any  means,  formidable  to  the 
students  whose  success  in  scholarship  was  sufficient  to 
assure  their  continuance  as  members  of  the  institution. 
Very  few,  I  think,  except  the  most  scholarly  men  in  the 
classes,  made  any  very  special  preparation  for  them,  or 
gave  themselves  during  the  days  or  weeks  of  their  con- 
tinuance to  careful  study.  It  was,  for  the  majority,  a 
period  rather  of  leisure,  than  of  work. 

The  system  of  written  examinations,  as  they  are 
called,  was  first  introduced  two  or  three  years  after  the 
class  of  which  I  was  a  member  graduated.  Its  introduc- 
tion was  one  of  the  marks  of  advance  in  scholarly  meth- 
ods which  characterized  Dr.  Woolsey's  Presidency.  Ex- 
periments connected  with  the  new  system  were  tried 
occasionally  afterwards,  and  sometimes,  after  trial,  were 
abandoned.  But  when  a  number  of  years  had  passed, 
the  oral  method  was  given  up  altogether,  and  the  exam- 
inations by  means  of  printed  /questions  and  written  an- 
swers became  thenceforth  the  permanent  order  of  things. 
The  development  of  the  new  system  has  continued  now 
92 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

for  more  than  thirty  years.  It  is  justly  regarded  as 
having  been  helpful  to  the  success  and  good  results  of 
college  education.  The  numbers  of  students  in  our 
larger  institutions  would,  no  doubt,  render  a  return  to 
the  older  plan  impossible,  even  if  its  merits  were  still 
worthy  of  serious  consideration.  Certainly  the  new 
which  has  taken  the  place  of  the  old,  in  this  matter,  has 
introduced  a  remarkable  change,  and  the  students  and 
Faculties  of  to-day  would  smile  at  the  thought  of  a 
revival  of  the  former  times  in  this  regard. 

For  my  own  part — not  having  entire  confidence  that 
the  educational  world  has  as  yet  reached  the  summit  of 
human  wisdom — I  have  the  hope,  and  I  may  even  say, 
the  faith  to  believe,  that  the  present  system  of  examina- 
tions will  ere  long,  by  evolution  or  transformation,  pass 
into  something  higher  and  better,  and  that  the  knowledge 
of  college  students  will  be  tested,  as  well  as  made  sure,  by 
a  system  of  personal,  individual  research  carried  on  in 
parallelism  with  the  teacher's  instructions,  and  under 
responsibility  to  him.  That  the  examinations  of  the 
present  time  are  more  strict,  and  call  for  more  study 
in  immediate  preparation  for  them,  than  those  of  my 
own  college  era,  I  have  little  doubt.  But  that  the 
students  of  to-day  have,  at  their  graduation,  a  better 
knowledge  of  the  things  that  they  have  studied  than  we 
had  of  those,  fewer  in  number  indeed,  which  were 
opened  to  us  for  our  studying,  I  do  not  believe.  That 
the  young  men  of  the  coming  eras  in  all  our  colleges  may 
have  a  much  better,  and  wider,  and  more  permanently 
abiding  knowledge  than  any  of  their  predecessors,  is 
greatly  to  be  desired.  But  new  changes  must  come  if 
this  result  is  to  be  realized. 

A  writer  whose  recollections  of  his  undergraduate 
days  go  backward  only  a  quarter  of  a  century  would 
scarcely  think  of  passing  over,  in  his  record,  the  subject 

93 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  athletic  sports.  But,  half  a  century  ago,  there  were 
no  sports  which  would  now  be  deemed  worthy  of  this 
high-sounding  name.  Almost  all  matters  in  the  line 
of  physical  exercise  were  of  a  more  individual  character, 
or  were  limited  to  small  companies  who  were  of  kindred 
tastes  and  had  friendly  fellowship.  The  one  contest  in 
our  time  that  could  in  a  sense  be  called  public,  was  the 
annual  football  game  between  the  Sophomore  and 
Freshman  classes,  which  took  place  early  in  the  autumn 
term  on  the  City  Green  or  Square,  just  opposite  the 
southern  portion  of  the  College  grounds.  This  contest 
attracted  considerable  attention  on  the  part  of  the  stu- 
dent community,  but  comparatively  little  outside  of  its 
limits.  It  was,  in  many  respects,  different  from  that  of 
the  modern  era,  and  it  included  five  games,  each  one  of 
which  usually  continued  from  twenty  to  thirty  minutes. 
My  class  had  in  its  membership  four  or  five  very  excel- 
lent and  prominent  players — the  major  part  of  whom 
had  entered  college  from  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School, 
though  I  may  say  that  the  good  old  Dominie,  whom  I 
have  mentioned,  did  not  give  special  instruction  in  such 
matters.  The  consequence  of  this  fact — namely,  that 
our  best  men  were  thus  gifted — was  that  we  were  at  the 
opening  of  our  Freshman  year  victorious  over  the  class 
then  Sophomores;  a  very  unusual  and  almost  unknown 
experience,  which  gave  us  a  certain  prominence  in  the 
College  even  from  the  beginning.  A  year  later,  when 
we  had  reached  the  Sophomore  year,  we  gained  the  vic- 
tory over  the  Freshmen  in  every  one  of  the  five  games, 
and  finished  all  the  games  in  thirty  minutes.  Our  posi- 
tion in  the  community  became  thus  permanently  estab- 
lished— and  I  think  I  may  say,  without  undue  commen- 
dation of  ourselves,  that  we  held  a  place  of  honor  in  the 
other  lines  of  college  life  and  work,  which  was  not  un- 
worthy of  us  as  Yale  students. 

There  was  no  gymnasium  connected  with  the  institu- 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

tion  at  that  period.  There  was  no  instruction  as  related 
to  physical  exercise.  There  was,  as  I  may  say,  no 
athletic  development,  and  no  enthusiasm  with  reference 
to  it  or  demand  for  it  in  the  public  mind.  As  for  the 
matter  of  health,  however,  I  believe  that  the  graduates 
of  our  colleges  then  were  as  sound  and  vigorous  as  they 
are  to-day.  I  am  confident  that  the  men  of  that  period 
who  were  hard  students — the  men  who  are  often  pictured 
now  as  having  been  weak  and  sickly,  and  candidates  for 
early  decline  and  death — were  quite  as  healthful  as  the 
average  athletes  of  the  more  recent  times.  I  was  myself 
a  member  of  a  little  company  which  numbered  fifteen, 
and  included  several  of  the  leading  scholars  and  intel- 
lectual men  of  my  class,  during  our  Senior  year.  Of 
that  number  eight  were  living  and  in  full  vigor,  and 
seven  were  present  at  our  class  meeting  in  New  Haven, 
at  the  time  when  we  celebrated  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
our  graduation. 

I  would  not  be  understood  as  recommending  a  return 
to  the  former  condition  of  things,  when  the  institution 
did  little  or  nothing  for  its  students  in  the  physical 
sphere.  But  bodily  strength  and  chances  for  long-con- 
tinued life  are  not  characteristic  of  the  later  classes  only. 
Earnest  students  and  thinkers  are  quite  as  likely  to  live 
to  old  age  in  the  fullness  of  strength,  as  the  leaders 
among  college  athletes  are.  Such  is  the  testimony  of 
past  experience,  whether  we  look  back  over  fifty  years, 
or  over  twenty-five  years.  There  is  no  greater  error  any- 
where, than  that  which  sometimes  takes  possession  of 
many  minds  and  finds  public  expression  of  itself — that 
students  in  the  college  years  lose  their  health  because 
they  give  themselves  devotedly  to  scholarly  work.  They 
lose  it,  if  at  all, — with  very  rare  exceptions — for  other 
reasons  than  this,  and  other  reasons  only.  Men  are  in- 
tended by  nature  to  exercise  their  minds,  as  truly  as 
they  are  to  exercise  their  bodies,  and  to  do  this  in  the 

95 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

youthful  season  and  the  after  times  alike.  Those  who 
do  not  use  and  strengthen  their  intellectual  powers  at  the 
beginning  fail  to  gain  much  that  life  has  within  itself 
to  offer  them.  If  the  two  departments  of  education  can 
be  perfectly  adjusted  to  each  other,  and  to  the  claims 
upon  both  alike,  our  universities  and  schools  will  realize 
their  ideal. 

I  have  thus  set  forth  somewhat  of  the  details  of  the 
undergraduate  life  of  my  classmates  and  myself,  and 
somewhat  of  the  contrast  between  our  experiences  and 
possibilities  and  those  of  college  students  now.  We  had 
much.  They  have  more.  We  had  some  things  which 
were  good,  but  which  have  passed  away.  They  have 
many  things  that  are  good,  of  which  we  knew  nothing, 
because  they  were  not  yet  existing.  But  we  were  college 
undergraduates  in  the  same  sense,  and  with  the  same  full- 
ness of  meaning,  as  those  who  have  followed  us  along 
the  course  of  the  half-century  even  to  its  ending.  We 
passed  on  through  the  four  years — half  using  and  half 
losing,  like  all  our  successors,  the  privileges  that  were 
offered  us.  We  found  our  minds  growing  stronger,  with 
the  movement  of  time ;  our  knowledge  becoming  greater ; 
our  vision  of  the  future  enlarging  in  its  clearness  and  its 
hopefulness.  We  entered,  with  a  deeper  insight,  into  the 
understanding  of  each  other's  thoughts,  and  rejoiced  in 
one  another's  friendship.  We  penetrated  lovingly  within 
the  inmost  soul-life  of  some  more  limited  fellowship — 
each  one  of  us — and  carried  away  and  onward  for  our- 
selves rich  thoughts  and  helpful  impulses.  We  were 
at  the  end — what  all  the  brotherhood  of  graduates  will 
appreciate  in  its  full  significance,  if  only  they  may  change 
the  number  of  the  year — the  Yale  Class  of  1849,  tnen 
the  youngest,  now  among  the  oldest  in  the  sonship  of  the 
kind  Mother  who  had  given  us  her  benediction. 


VII. 

Life  as  Graduate  Student  and  in  the  Tutorship — 1849 
to  1855. 

IN  the  annual  Catalogue  for  the  academic  year  1 848- 
49,  the  following  statement  is  made: — "The 
avails  of  a  bequest  to  the  College  by  Sheldon 
Clark,  Esq.,  according  to  the  will  of  the  donor,  have 
been  applied  to  the  establishment  of  two  Scholarships, 
to  commence  in  the  years  1848  and  1849  respectively, 
on  a  foundation  of  two  thousand  dollars  each.  The 
member  of  the  Senior  Class  who  shall  pass  the  best  ex- 
amination on  the  studies  of  the  College  course,  will  be 
admitted  to  the  Clark  Scholarship  and  entitled  to  receive 
the  income  of  its  fund  for  two  years,  provided  he  remains 
in  New  Haven  as  a  graduate  during  that  period,  pur- 
suing a  course  of  study  under  the  direction  of  the 
Faculty." 

As  it  was  my  desire,  and  my  purpose  if  possible,  to 
remain  in  New  Haven  for  a  year  or  two  after  my 
graduation,  and  as  the  moderate  income  offered  by  this 
scholarship  would  be,  as  I  knew,  helpful  in  the  way  of 
meeting  my  expenses,  I  determined  to  present  myself  for 
the  required  examination.  It  chanced  to  be  the  case 
that  I  was  successful  in  passing  it,  and  as  the  result  I 
became  the  Clark  Scholar  for  the  years  1849-51.  I 
mention  this  Scholarship  and  this  circumstance  connected 
with  my  own  relation  to  it,  not  because  of  any  worthiness 
of  the  facts  themselves  in  their  union  with  each  other  to 
be  thus  recorded,  but  for  reasons  of  quite  a  different 
character. 

97 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

The  Clark  Scholarship  fund  has  a  special  interest,  in 
that  it  was  the  first  one  established  at  Yale  which  may 
be  said  to  have  had  a  connection  with  the  beginning  and 
development  of  what  is  now  called  the  Graduate  School. 
The  Berkeley  Scholarship  reaches  backward  indeed,  in 
the  date  of  its  foundation,  to  1733.  But,  while  it  was 
intended  to  make  provision  for  students  who  should  re- 
main at  the  College  during  the  time  intervening  between 
their  first  and  second  degrees  in  Arts,  it  accomplished 
but  little,  in  the  later  years,  in  the  way  of  inducing  young 
graduates  to  continue  their  studies.  The  income  avail- 
able for  each  scholar — only  about  forty-six  dollars — was 
too  small,  even  as  measured  by  the  standard  of  fifty- 
years  ago,  to  have  any  special  influence  upon  the  student's 
mind  or  purpose.  The  Clark  foundation  yielded  nearly 
three  times  this  income  for  each  one  placed  upon  it;  and 
it  became  available,  after  some  twenty  years  of  gradual 
accumulation,  in  the  year  following  the  first  organized 
movement,  as  it  may  be  called,  for  graduate  instruction 
in  the  institution.  This  movement  resulted  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  what  was  styled,  "The  Department  of  Phil- 
osophy and  the  Arts,"  in  August,  1846,  the  object  of 
which,  as  stated  by  the  authorities  of  the  College,  was 
"to  furnish  resident  graduates  and  others  with  the  op- 
portunity of  devoting  themselves  to  special  branches  of 
study  either  not  provided  for  at  present,  or  not  pursued 
as  far  as  individual  students  may  desire."  After  some 
years,  this  department  resolved  itself  into  two  branches, 
one  of  which  became  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  and 
the  other  the  School  for  Graduate  Instruction.  It  was 
only  a  single  year  after  the  actual  beginning  of  the  de- 
partment when  the  first  Clark  Scholarship  was  offered, 
and  there  was  thus  a  most  timely  connection  of  the  two 
events.  To-day,  such  a  fellowship  foundation  seems  a 
small  one.  It  was  not  large  even  at  that  time;  but  it 
was  large  enough  to  give  some  impulse  and  encourage- 
98 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

ment  to  the  work  that  was  beginning.  It  is  therefore 
worthy  of  special  recognition  as  the  first  of  the  endow- 
ments which  have  accomplished  so  much,  in  the  progress 
of  the  half-century,  for  the  development  of  the  studies 
reaching  beyond  the  undergraduate  course,  and  for  the 
growth  and  transformation  of  the  College  into  the 
University. 

The  fact  that  this  scholarship  was  assigned  to  me,  as 
the  representative  of  one  of  the  two  classes  to  whose 
members  it  was  first  offered,  placed  me,  if  I  may  so  ex- 
press it,  in  a  certain  recognized  and  organic  connection 
with  the  newly  formed  Department.  I  was  thus  one  of 
its  very  earliest  members,  and  I  continued  in  its  member- 
ship for  two  years,  pursuing  non-professional  studies. 
There  had,  of  course,  been  resident  graduates  at  the  Col- 
lege many  times  in  previous  eras  of  its  history,  but  their 
relation  to  the  institution  was  a  looser  one  and  less  dis- 
tinctly marked.  We  were,  in  our  day,  the  beginnings  of 
a  more  definite  and  regular  body  of  students,  and  we 
had,  in  a  more  true  sense  of  the  word,  a  position  of  our 
own.  My  scholarship  and  myself,  therefore,  were  near 
the  foundation  of  this  section  of  the  University,  and  the 
entire  history  of  its  growth  and  its  work  falls  within  the 
period  over  which  my  recollections  extend. 

In  each  of  the  two  years  of  my  scholarship  term,  there 
were  in  the  Department  of  Philosophy  and  the  Arts 
about  twenty  students.  Three-fourths  of  these  were  in 
the  Scientific  section,  and  were  not  College  graduates. 
Not  more  than  five  or  six  were  pursuing  courses  which 
naturally  followed  after  those  of  the  College  curriculum. 
The  special  work  which  I  recall  with  interest,  and  in 
which  nearly  all  of  us  who  were  graduates  were  asso- 
ciated, was  that  which  we  did  under  the  guidance  and 
instruction  of  President  Woolsey.  We  met  him  twice 
a  week  during  the  College  year  1849-50  for  the  reading 
of  Thucydides,  and  in  the  next  year  for  the  study  of 

99 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

Pindar.  The  exercises  were  stimulating  and  helpful  be- 
yond any  that  I  had  known  in  my  undergraduate  career 
— partly,  no  doubt,  because  I  had  entered  more  fully 
upon  the  freedom  of  manhood,  with  an  escape  from  the 
minor  rules  of  the  academic  life,  and  partly  because  the 
President  felt  that  he  -was  dealing  with  graduates,  and 
thus  might  lay  aside  somewhat  of  the  official  element 
which  pertained  to  the  teacher's  relation  to  younger  stu- 
dents. 

I  had  the  happiness,  also,  to  be  associated  in  the  small 
company  of  five  or  six  who  formed  the  class  with  young 
men  of  very  unusual  scholarly  ability.  William  Dwight 
Whitney,  afterwards  the  eminent  linguistic  scholar  and 
Professor  of  Sanskrit  and  Comparative  Philology,  who 
so  greatly  honored  the  University  by  his  life  and  work 
within  its  walls,  was  one  of  the  number.  William  Allen 
Macy,  a  graduate  of  the  class  of  1844,  was  another.  He 
was  a  scholar  of  remarkable  refinement,  and  in  many,  if 
not  all  respects,  he  seemed  to  me,  at  the  time,  to  be  the 
equal  of  Whitney.  He  gave  himself  a  little  later  to 
the  work  of  a  foreign  missionary,  and  after  twelve  years 
of  faithful  and  efficient  service  in  China,  he  died  there, 
when  he  had  scarcely  reached  the  age  of  forty.  No  one 
who  knew  him  can  forget  the  charm  of  his  gentle,  intelli- 
gent, cultured,  lovable  personality.  An  interesting  and 
fitting  memorial  of  him  will  ever  continue  in  the  Univer- 
sity, in  the  Macy  Scholarship,  the  foundation  of  which, 
in  the  interest  of  graduate  studies,  was  given  by  a  be- 
quest in  his  will.  Another  member  of  the  class  was  Clin- 
ton Camp,  who  graduated  in  the  next  year  after  me  and 
with  whom  I  was  united  in  one  of  the  closest  of  college 
friendships.  He  died  of  consumption,  in  Italy,  only 
three  years  after  his  graduation.  In  his  death  our  gen- 
eration of  educated  men  lost,  as  I  have  always  thought, 
one  who  would  have  done  an  honorable  work  in  scholar- 
ship, and  would  have  had  an  inspiring  influence  for  every 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND      M  E  Ni 

student  who  knew  him  intimately.  He  had  a  fresh  and 
joyous  delight  in  all  new  and  beautiful  things,  and  a 
generous  youthful  enthusiasm  as  he  studied  the  old 
writers  and  poets,  or  as  he  looked  out  upon  the  richness 
of  the  world  about  him.  The  pleasure  of  our  reading  of 
Homer's  Iliad  together  in  those  long  bygone  days,  and 
of  our  Sunday  evening  talks  of  the  life  within  us  and 
without  us,  abides  with  me  still. 

With  such  men  in  his  class — no  one  of  whom  ever 
came  to  his  exercises  reluctantly,  or  as  if  meeting  an  ap- 
pointed task — it  was  not  strange  that  the  President  was 
always  ready  to  give  us  what  was  best  in  his  teaching. 
He  gave  us  also  of  what  was  best  in  himself — the  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  his  own  scholarship  and  his  own  intel- 
lectual power.  It  was  a  good  fortune,  indeed,  to  be  near 
enough  to  such  a  man  to  be  moved  by  his  example,  and 
to  get  for  oneself  some  appreciation  of  his  ideal  of  the 
genuine  scholar.  Those  years  were  the  most  valuable  of 
the  educational  period  of  my  earlier  life.  They  prepared 
me  for  my  duties  as  a  college  tutor  and  for  my  European 
studies  in  the  subsequent  years,  and  became  in  this  way 
the  foundation  of  all  my  maturer  life  and  its  work. 

I  presume  that  my  holding  the  Clark  Scholarship  and 
my  connection  as  a  graduate  student  with  President 
Woolsey's  class  in  Thucydides  had  an  influence  as  bear- 
ing upon  my  early  admission  to  the  teaching  force  of 
the  College.  The  immediate  cause,  however,  of  my 
being  asked  to  give  instruction  to  undergraduate  students 
was,  as  I  may  say,  an  accidental  one.  My  older  brother, 
who  was  at  the  time  one  of  the  tutors  for  the  Freshman 
class,  was  called  to  spend  a  number  of  weeks  in  a  distant 
part  of  the  country.  He  waited  upon  the  President  with 
a  request  for  a  leave  of  absence,  which,  in  view  of  the 
reasons  presented,  was  given  him.  The  question  of  a 
supply  for  the  temporary  vacancy  in  the  office  of  instruc- 
tion was  naturally  raised  in  the  course  of  the  interview. 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Much  to  my  brother's  surprise — and  still  more,  if  pos- 
sible, to  my  own,  when  I  heard  of  the  fact — the  Presi- 
dent suggested  that  I  should  take  upon  myself  the  work, 
and  authorized  me  to  do  so.  I  was  a  graduate  of  only 
four  months'  standing,  and  had  had  no  idea  of  being 
thought  of  as  a  college  instructor,  if  indeed  at  all,  until 
three  years  later.  Such  an  early  assignment  to  duty  was 
almost  or  quite  unknown  at  that  period,  and  the  responsi- 
bility of  undertaking  the  work,  even  for  a  few  weeks, 
seemed  somewhat  serious.  After  thinking  of  the  matter, 
however,  I  gave  an  affirmative  answer  to  the  request,  and 
in  due  time  found  myself  in  the  tutor's  box  in  the  recita- 
tion room,  with  the  members  of  the  new  class  before  me. 
The  result  of  my  action,  as  it  proved  afterwards,  was, 
that  I  was  called  into  the  service  whenever  a  vacancy  of 
a  similar  character,  whether  for  a  few  days  or  a  few 
weeks,  occurred,  until  I  entered  upon  my  regular  official 
duties  on  an  appointment  for  three  years.  In  this  way,  I 
had  the  fortune  to  know  the  classes  of  1851,  1852,  1853 
and  1854 — though  the  first  class  with  which  I  became 
connected  as  a  more  permanent  tutor  was  the  one  which 
was  graduated  in  1855. 

The  class  which  I  met  in  December,  1849,  was  tnat  °f 
1853.  The  members  of  this  class  were,  at  that  time,  still 
in  the  first  term  of  their  Freshman  year.  Their  entrance 
upon  the  College  course  coincided  in  date  with  my  grad- 
uation, and  I  was,  accordingly,  almost  as  one  of  them- 
selves— seeming  to  my  own  mind,  if  not  to  theirs,  more 
like  a  member  of  the  student  body,  than  one  of  the  board 
of  instruction.  There  were  men  in  the  class  older  than 
myself,  as  indeed  in  all  the  classes  which  I  afterwards 
taught  in  the  years  of  my  tutorship ;  and  the  entire  mem- 
bership appeared  to  me  to  be  my  equals  in  age.  My 
feeling  with  respect  to  this  matter,  together  with  my 
realization  of  the  fact  that  my  connection  with  the  class 
was  to  be  only  of  a  temporary  character,  had  an  influence 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

— at  least,  as  I  recall  the  past,  I  think  it  may  naturally 
have  had  an  influence — upon  my  subsequent  life  as  a 
teacher.  I  was,  as  it  were,  a  college  youth  with  college 
youths.  I  knew  just  enough  more  of  Latin,  and  of  Lin- 
coln's Livy,  the  book  which  they  were  studying,  than 
they  did,  to  enable  me  successfully  to  hear  the  recitations 
and  conduct  the  exercises.  But  I  was  only  a  little  way 
beyond  them  in  my  learning,  and  a  very  little  in  my 
sympathies  and  hopes.  Moreover,  how  much  was  it 
possible  for  me  to  teach  them,  or  help  them  in  their 
mental  discipline,  within  the  few  weeks  to  which  I  was 
limited?  It  may  well  have  seemed  as  if  I  could  do  al- 
most nothing.  But  I  could,  in  a  measure,  open  myself 
to  their  acquaintance. and  begin  to  know  them  as  men. 
The  impulse  of  my  nature  moved  me  to  do  this;  and  I 
found,  to  my  great  satisfaction,  that  they  were  gener- 
ously responsive  to  my  advances  and  were  ready  for 
kindly  friendship.  The  foundations  of  what  followed 
were  laid  in  those  weeks.  The  beginnings  of  lifelong 
regard  and  affection  were  realized.  The  Class  of  1853 
has  had  a  very  honorable  career  in  the  world,  and  many 
whose  names  are  enrolled  in  its  membership  have  held 
in  the  past,  or  are  now  holding,  very  prominent  positions 
in  Church  or  State.  I  esteem  it  a  privilege  of  my  earlier 
years  that  I  began  my  work  as  a  college  instructor  with 
them  as  my  students.  Whether  they  took  away  with 
them  anything  from  my  teaching,  I  do  not  know.  I 
have  many  doubts.  But  if,  at  that  time,  as  well  as  after- 
wards when  we  knew  each  other  better,  they  took  some- 
thing from  myself — and  I  have  a  pleasant  thought  that 
they  did — I  am  satisfied. 

The  classes  of  1851  and  1852  I  met  only  on  a  few 
occasions,  when  their  regular  instructors  chanced  to  be 
absent  from  the  College.  But  with  the  Class  of  1854  I 
was  brought  into  close  connection  for  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  a  term,  at  the  beginning  of  their  Sophomore  year. 
103 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

My  association  with  the  members  of  this  class  was  of  a 
character  similar  to  that  which  I  had  had  with  the  pre- 
ceding class,  and  my  pleasant  memories  of  our  friendly 
intercourse  still  abide  with  me,  refreshed  and  strength- 
ened by  what  I  have  known  of  their  history  since 
their  graduation.  The  work  of  instruction  to  which  I 
was  called  when  I  met  this  class  was  in  the  Latin  depart- 
ment, as  it  had  been  during  the  few  weeks  of  my  associa- 
tion with  the  Class  of  1 853.  My  earliest  efforts  in  teach- 
ing were,  thus,  in  that  branch  of  study.  But  with  refer- 
ence to  the  future  the  call  was  to  another  department. 

The  system  or  rule  of  the  College,  in  those  days,  had 
little  or  no  regard  for  the  wishes  of  a  tutor  just  entering 
upon  his  office,  or  even  to  his  fitness  or  unfitness  for  any 
particular  branch  of  instruction.  On  the  contrary,  the 
choices  of  departments  of  teaching  were  made  in  the 
order  of  seniority,  and  the  beginner  or  the  youngest  in 
the  tutorial  office  was  obliged  to  take  the  position  that 
was  left  for  him  after  the  older  men  had  made  their 
selection  for  themselves.  At  the  time  when  the  call  for 
more  permanent  service  came  to  me,  the  arrangements 
for  the  year  had  been  already  made,  and  in  consequence 
of  this  fact,  as  well  as  of  other  special  circumstances,  I 
found  myself  under  the  necessity  of  assuming  the  duty  of 
instructing  a  class  in  Greek  which  had  in  the  preceding 
term  been  taught  by  Professor  Hadley.  A  hard  neces- 
sity, indeed,  it  seemed  to  me  to  be  when  I  first  came  to 
the  knowledge  that  I  had  to  meet  it.  Mr.  Hadley  had 
already  attained  so  much  success  in  his  work,  and  had 
won  such  high  esteem  as  a  scholar  both  from  the  students 
and  the  Faculty,  that  I  thought  it  beyond  the  power  of 
any  youthful  inexperienced  teacher  to  take  up  the  work 
which  he  was  laying  aside.  Certainly  I  had  no  confi- 
dence in  my  own  powers,  and  I  could  only  feel  that  the 
fates  were  against  me  at  the  beginning  of  my  course.  I 
yielded,  however,  to  the  inevitable,  and  afterwards  I 
104 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

found  that  there  was  a  different  meaning  in  it  from  what 
I  had  thought.  It  carried  within  itself  a  blessing,  for  it 
determined  my  life-work,  and  gave  me  my  first  entrance 
into  the  enjoyment  and  happiness  of  my  career  as  a  stu- 
dent and  a  teacher.  I  think  of  it  now,  not  as  an  ordering 
of  destiny  which  I  could  not  understand,  but  as  a  kind 
interposition  of  Providence  on  my  behalf. 

I  continued  in  the  tutorial  office  for  four  years  after 
the  time  when  its  full  duties  were  first  assigned  to  me. 
During  this  period  I  acted  as  an  instructor  for  three 
classes — those  of  1855,  1856  and  1857.  With  the  first- 
mentioned  of  these  I  had  a  little  longer  connection  than 
with  either  of  the  others,  but  I  was  brought  into  more 
than  usually  close  and  intimate  relations  with  them  all. 
I  had  as  thorough  and  friendly  an  acquaintance,  I  think 
I  may  say,  with  the  members  of  the  class  of  1855,  as 
they  had  with  one  another.  I  knew  them  so  well  that 
they  visited  me  at  my  college  room  with  frequency,  and 
in  the  most  familiar  way;  and  they  counseled  with  me  as 
to  their  plans  for  the  future,  or  the  matters  of  their  daily 
life,  with  the  utmost  readiness.  Even  in  the  things  per- 
taining to  the  class  and  its  actions,  respecting  which  they 
differed  from  each  other,  or  opposed  each  others'  views, 
they  were  oftentimes  willing  to  communicate  their 
thoughts  and  purposes  freely  to  me — both  parties  alike 
believing  that  what  they  said  to  me  would  be  kept  in  ab- 
solute confidence.  They  made  me,  even  in  as  full  and 
complete  a  measure  as  this,  a  friend  to  their  whole  com- 
pany. By  reason  of  this  fact  as  to  our  pleasant  relation- 
ships, and  perhaps  also  because  I  had,  under  the  difficult 
circumstances  connected  with  my  new  work  to  which  I 
have,  referred,  met  their  approval  as  a  teacher  in  a 
higher  degree  than  I  had  anticipated,  they  were  moved 
to  give  me  a  special  testimonial  of  their  regard,  at  the 
close  of  their  first  academic  year.  With  a  kindly  earnest- 
ness they  requested  the  Faculty  that  I  might  be  continued 
105 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

with  them  as  their  instructor  in  Greek  during  the  year 
upon  which  they  were  about  to  enter.  The  result  was 
that  I  remained  in  connection  with  the  class  until,  at  the 
close  of  the  first  term  of  their  Junior  studies,  Professor 
Hadley  again  took  up  the  work,  in  accordance  with  an 
established  arrangement  of  the  time.  This  testimonial 
was  one  of  an  unusual  character,  at  least  at  that  period, 
and  it  may  fitly  have  a  place  among  the  pleasant  memo- 
ries of  my  earlier  life  as  a  teacher. 

The  classes  of  1856  and  1857  had  much  of  the  same 
friendly  intercourse  with  me  during  their  undergraduate 
years,  and  they  have  seemed  to  me  ever  since  that  period 
more  like  companies  of  my  fellow-students  than  my 
pupils.  My  most  recent  meeting  with  the  Class  of  1856, 
at  the  time  of  the  Bicentennial  Anniversary  in  1901, 
was  one  marked  by  the  kindest  College  sentiment. 

But  what  I  have  said  on  this  matter  of  my  relations 
to  the  classes  that  I  met  while  I  was  in  the  tutorial  office 
has  also  another  bearing,  and  I  allow  myself  to  make  a 
special  reference  to  it  for  this  reason.  Fifty  years  ago, 
the  relationship  between  College  officers  and  students  in 
all  our  institutions,  as  has  been  already  intimated,  was 
mainly  of  the  governmental  order,  and  the  prevailing 
idea  of  government  was  that  of  repression,  of  rules  and 
laws,  of  force  and  the  display  of  authority.  There  was 
correspondingly  little  of  personal  relationship  of  a 
friendly  character,  of  the  influence  which  goes  forth  in 
unrestrained  or  intimate  association,  of  the  openness  and 
freedom  of  intercourse  where  all  thought  of  violation  of 
law  disappears  and  the  generosity  of  confidence  is  awak- 
ened. I  was  at  the  time — and  I  have  been  ever  since — a 
thorough  disbeliever  in  the  old  system,  while  almost  all 
the  other  members  of  the  Faculty  were  then  largely 
under  its  influence,  and  were  quite  unprepared  to  aban- 
don it.  On  my  entrance  upon  my  official  duties,  I  imme- 
diately formed  my  decision — or  I  may  rather  say,  so  all- 
106 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

controlling  was  my  natural  impulse  that  no  decision 
needed  to  be  formed — to  follow  in  my  own  dealings 
with  students  the  new  line  of  action,  and  not  the  old,  and 
to  begin  as  far  as  I  was  myself  concerned,  the  carrying 
out  of  the  ideas  in  which  I  believed.  In  the  main,  I 
limited  myself  to  what  I  was  called  to  do  in  my  indi- 
vidual work.  I  was  content  to  make  a  trial  of  my  plan, 
and  let  its  result  bear  its  own  witness. 

The  tutors,  however,  then  constituted  a  much  larger 
part  of  the  entire  governing  board  of  instruction  than 
they  do  at  present,  and  as  a  consequence  they  had  greater 
influence  and  were  more  ready  to  press  their  opinions  for 
acceptance.  There  were  seven  in  the  tutorial  body  when 
I  entered  into  the  membership  of  the  Faculty,  while 
there  were  only  seven  professors  in  the  College  depart- 
ment. The  same  even  division  between  the  permanent 
and  temporary  instructors  continued  until  the  close  of 
my  official  term.  The  younger  men,  accordingly,  when 
they  differed  in  sentiment  from  the  older  ones,  did  not 
hesitate  to  give  utterance  to  their  independent  thoughts. 
The  individual  young  member,  whether  his  associates 
of  his  own  age  agreed  with  him  or  not,  did  not  shrink 
from  the  presentation  of  his  views  or,  if  need  were,  from 
the  earnest  advocacy  of  them.  I  recall  some  memorable 
controversies  in  which  I  took  an  active,  or  even  a  leading 
part,  in  opposition  to  the  men  of  greatest  influence  in  the 
older  section  of  the  board;  and  I  was,  as  I  have  said,  a 
constant  advocate  whether  by  my  course  of  action  or  by 
my  spoken  words,  of  a  new  and,  as  I  believed,  a  more 
wise  and  reasonable,  and  therefore  a  more  efficient,  sys- 
tem of  administration  of  the  daily  life  of  the  College 
community. 

Nearly  half  a  century  has  passed  away  since  that  time, 

and  the  more  desirable  system  has  now  been  established 

for  so  long  a  period  that  the  students  of  the  present 

and  the  recent  years  have  little  idea  of  any  other  as  hav- 

107 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

ing  ever  existed.  It  has,  as  I  may  almost  say,  re-created 
the  academic  life,  and  it  has  certainly  brought  with  itself 
very  happy  results  for  all  within  the  college  community. 
I  would  not  claim  for  myself  anything  more  in  respect 
to  the  change  that  has  been  realized,  than  the  history  of 
the  times  would  justify.  I  would  not,  in  these  pages, 
place  myself  in  comparison  with  others  who  wrought  for 
the  same  end.  But  I  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the 
matter,  and  I  hare  had  my  reward  in  the  happy  years 
of  my  Presidency.  The  elder  Professor  Silliman,  in 
his  lectures  on  chemistry  and  geology  to  the  Senior 
classes,  used  to  say,  now  and  then,  as  he  was  led  to 
speak  in  praise  of  Yale  and  its  work:  "The  three 
great  books  of  Yale  and  New  Haven  [this,  it  will  be 
remembered,  was  in  1850]  are  Dwight's  Theology, 
Webster's  Dictionary,  and  Silliman's  Journal  of 
Science — in  respect  to  the  last  of  which  I  may  say, 
not,  indeed,  *  Quorum  magna  'pars  fui'  but,  '  Quorum 
pars  fui.1  "  It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  know  that,  in  con- 
nection with  the  matter  to  which  I  am  referring,  I  can 
use  the  Professor's  words:  "  Quorum  pars  fui"  I  be- 
lieve that  it  is  a  far  easier  task  to  govern  an  academic 
community  of  two  thousand  students  to-day,  than  it  was, 
fifty  years  ago,  to  govern  three  hundred;  or  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  to  govern  one  hundred  and  thirty. 
The  position  of  a  chief  administrative  officer  of  a  body 
of  two  thousand  students  in  the  period  when  the  old 
system  had  dominion  everywhere  would  have  been,  in- 
deed, a  trying  and  unattractive  one. 

When  I  entered  upon  my  official  term  as  tutor,  the 
President's  room  was  in  the  building  called  North  Col- 
lege— No.  1 17,  a  room  on  the  second  floor  of  the  build- 
ing, used  from  1895  to  1900  as  a  club-room  for  the 
German  Club  of  the  University.  It  was  like  the  other 
rooms  in  the  building  except  that  the  space  ordinarily 
1 08 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

occupied  by  sleeping  rooms  was  added  to  the  study- 
apartment.  The  meetings  of  the  College  Faculty  were 
held  in  this  place  on  every  Wednesday  afternoon  of  the 
academic  terms.  It  was  hard  for  me  to  believe  that  this 
could  have  been  the  fact,  when  by  chance  I  looked  into 
the  room  three  or  four  years  ago ;  but  as  there  were  only 
fourteen  persons  who  attended  the  meetings,  the  accom- 
modations were  sufficient.  At  the  time  to  which  I  refer, 
Professor  Kingsley  had  just  laid  aside  the  duties  of  his 
chair  of  instruction,  and  had  become  Professor  Emeritus, 
and  Professor  Stanley,  who  was  one  of  the  younger 
professors,  had  been  obliged,  by  reason  of  ill  health,  to 
withdraw  from  his  work.  These  gentlemen  were  still, 
in  a  certain  sense,  in  the  membership  of  the  Faculty,  but 
they  were  no  longer  attendants  at  the  meetings  or  par- 
ticipants in  the  administration  of  the  College  community. 
The  President,  when  the  body  was  assembled,  occupied 
the  chair  in  which  he  usually  sat  at  his  study  table,  and 
which  was  near  the  center  of  one  of  the  longer  sides 
of  the  room.  The  professors  occupied  chairs  beginning 
at  the  left  of  the  President  and  extending  about  one-half 
of  the  distance  around  the  walls,  and  then  the  tutors  had 
their  seats,  reaching  as  far  as  the  stove  which  heated  the 
apartment,  and  was  located  just  at  the  President's  right 
hand.  The  professors  arranged  themselves  in  this 
order: — the  elder  Silliman,  Olmsted,  Larned,  Porter, 
Hadley,  Thacher.  The  tutors  were  a  more  frequently 
changing  body,  and  their  order  of  arrangement  was  not 
so  established — except  that  the  Senior  Tutor,  who  was 
also  the  locating  officer,  having  charge  of  the  assignment 
and  ordering  of  students'  rooms  in  the  College  buildings, 
had  his  place  regularly  on  the  right  of  the  President. 

The  meetings  of  the  Faculty  were  occupied  largely 
with  cases  of  discipline.     They  were  oftentimes  weari- 
some.   They  were  rendered  more  so  than  might  other- 
wise have  been  the  case,  because  it  was  the  custom  then 
109 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  bring  forward  before  the  whole  body  matters  of 
minor  importance,  which  are  settled  now  by  committees 
or  by  the  officers  of  particular  classes.  They  had  the 
tendency,  incidental  to  all  assemblages  of  men,  to  pro- 
long the  time  of  their  continuance — the  law  of  humanity 
seeming  always  to  be,  that  two  intelligent  men  will 
spend  twice  the  time  in  deciding  any  question,  which 
would  be  allowed  by  either  of  them,  if  he  were  acting 
alone.  This  appears  to  be  the  common  understanding  of 
the  significance  of  the  Biblical  phrase,  "  In  the  multitude 
of  counselors  there  is  wisdom."  But  these  meetings 
were  in  general,  if  not  always,  interesting,  and  they  were 
so  not  only  because  the  matters  discussed  and  the  opin- 
ions set  forth  were  of  interest,  but  also  because  they 
afforded  the  opportunity  of  observing  the  intellectual 
and  other  characteristics  of  the  men  in  the  company — 
especially  the  older  men.  The  late  Dr.  John  Todd,  of 
Pittsfield,  Mass.,  once  told  me  that,  in  an  interview 
which  he  had  with  President  Nott,  of  Union  College,  he 
said  to  the  President,  "  I  suppose  you  have  meetings  of 
the  Faculty  in  your  institution."  "Faculty  meetings;  " 
replied  the  President,  "  I  remember  having  one  once, 
some  thirty-six  years  ago,  but  I  never  wish  to  have  an- 
other." President  Nott,  if  we  make  every  allowance  for 
his  attitude  with  regard  to  the  matter,  evidently  was 
thinking  of  the  meetings  in  one  aspect  only.  He  did 
not  turn  his  mind  to  the  other  view  of  the  subject.  Pos- 
sibly he  was  too  autocratic  to  form  a  just  judgment. 
The  study  of  mind  and  character  must  be  always  inter- 
esting to  an  intelligent  person,  I  think,  unless  there  be 
some  special  reason  which  renders  the  individual  case 
quite  exceptional.  I  can  appreciate  President  Nott's  feel- 
ing, and,  if  I  had  ever  experienced  his  difficulties  or  had 
had  to  face  the  problems  which  were  presented  to  him, 
I  might  have  fully  sympathized  with  his  view.  But,  not- 
withstanding the  hours  of  life  which  would  have  been 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

saved  for  myself,  and  for  my  brethren  as  well,  if  meet- 
ings for  deliberation  and  consultation  had  many  times 
been  shortened  or  made  less  frequent,  I  look  back  upon 
my  earlier  experiences,  and  my  later  ones,  with  the  feel- 
ing of  satisfaction  and  pleasure  in  the  thought  that  I 
gained  in  such  meetings  much  knowledge  of  my  asso- 
ciates and  friends. 

It  will  not  be  regarded  as  unfitting,  I  trust,  if  I  suffer 
myself  to  follow  the  impulse  which  moves  me,  as  I  recall 
those  Faculty  meetings  of  the  former  days,  and  give 
some  of  my  impressions  of  the  older  men  who  attended 
them.  The  younger  men  were  my  own  contemporaries, 
and,  of  course,  they  were  not  quite  so  interesting  as 
studies  of  fully  developed  manhood.  We  were  tutors, 
and  our  minds  looked  upward  to  the  professors.  The 
professors,  at  that  period — as,  indeed,  in  all  periods — 
differed  widely  from  one  another  in  many  ways.  In 
general,  the  younger  ones,  like  the  tutors,  were,  as  re- 
lated to  individual  cases,  more  strict  disciplinarians  than 
their  elder  brethren — at  least,  more  thoughtfully,  not  to 
say  more  intelligently  so.  Both  older  and  younger  were 
believers  in  what  I  have  spoken  of  as  the  old  system — 
in  every  point  of  which  strictness  was  the  marked  char- 
acteristic. No  one,  in  theory,  accepted  the  new  system, 
or  thought  it  could  be  successful.  But  when  theories 
come  to  be  applied  practically  to  the  cases  of  individuals, 
older  men  are  more  likely  to  let  their  feelings  affect  their 
action,  or,  as  some  would  say,  warp  their  judgment. 
Young  men  are  apt  to  act  in  the  opposite  way.  They  think 
that  the  law  should  take  its  course,  and  that  there  is  an 
alarming  danger  in  bad  precedents.  Some  persons  never 
get  over  the  fear  connected  with  precedents.  Compara- 
tively few  escape  it,  I  think,  under  the  age  of  forty  or 
fifty.  President  Woolsey  used  to  say  that  he  had  no- 
ticed that  young  people, before  they  had  children  of  their 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

own,  were  generally  very  severe  in  their  theories  of 
family  discipline,  but  that  later,  after  their  children  were 
born,  they  dealt  with  them  as  leniently  as  their  elders 
did.  I  have  observed  the  same  phenomenon  myself,  as  I 
have  moved  onward  in  life.  As  I  make  this  allusion  to 
the  President's  remark,  however,  perhaps  I  ought  in 
justice  to  add — by  way  of  a  momentary  digression — 
that,  when  in  the  Faculty  meetings  he  saw  that  a  special 
case  needed  to  be  decided  on  the  side  of  severity,  he  was 
wont,  as  he  asked  for  the  expressions  of  opinion  or  the 
votes,  to  begin  with  the  younger  men,  instead  of  the 
older. 

But  I  have  qualified  my  words  in  an  earlier  sentence, 
and  have  said  that  the  younger  men  were  in  individual 
cases  more  thoughtfully,  or  perhaps  more  intelligently, 
strict  than  the  older  ones.  This  may  naturally  have  been 
the  fact.  The  young  officer,  even  in  those  days,  was 
nearer  to  the  daily  academic  life  and  more  intimately 
connected  with  it.  He  was  much  more  likely  to  have  a 
full  understanding  of  the  bearing,  as  well  as  the  facts,  of 
the  cases  presented  for  consideration.  The  older  men — 
especially  those  who  met  the  students  mainly  as  lec- 
turers, or  only  in  occasional  exercises — often  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  questions  arising  until  they  entered 
the  meetings,  and  as  a  consequence  of  this  fact  they 
gained  only  a  measure  of  true  apprehension  respecting 
them.  They  were  liable  to  be  affected  by  their  ten- 
derness of  feeling,  on  one  side,  or — in  just  the  oppo- 
site way — by  some  strong  presentation  of  the  case  as 
given  by  one  who  knew  more  of  the  matter  than  they 
did.  Their  votes  might  be  for  one  verdict  or  another — 
no  one  could  conjecture  accurately  beforehand — because 
they  were,  in  a  sense,  thoughtlessly  influenced  at  the 
moment.  This  condition  of  things  pertains  to  all  periods, 
and  necessarily  so;  and  herein  is  to  be  found  one  very 
significant  reason  why,  as  our  college  faculties  grow 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

larger  in  numbers  and  many  of  their  members  have 
less  immediate  connection  with  student  life,  the  matter 
of  discipline  and  the  government  of  that  life  should  be 
intrusted  to  a  smaller  body  of  specially  qualified  and 
gifted  men. 

But  these  older  officers  differed  not  only  in  their  views 
of  discipline  and  kindred  matters;  they  differed,  also, 
in  their  personal  characteristics  and  peculiarities. 
Whether  these  differences  were  greater  than  they  are 
in  the  membership  of  a  Faculty  at  the  present  time,  I 
will  not  venture  to  affirm  with  confidence.  But  however 
this  may  be,  their  individualities  were  quite  distinct  and 
striking,  and  the  contrasts  or  divergencies  that  were 
manifest  in  their  special  mental  gifts,  as  well  as  in  their 
natural  dispositions  and  qualities,  were  such  as  to  awaken 
continual  interest  in  the  minds  of  those  who  looked  upon 
them  in  their  daily  life.  I  would  that  I  could  give  an 
adequate  representation  of  them  on  these  pages — that  I 
could  so  describe  them  that  the  reader  of  to-day  might 
see,  as  it  were,  the  living  personalities,  and  might,  in  a 
true  sense,  know  the  men.  But  the  most  that  I  can  hope 
to  do  is  to  set  forth  a  few  things  which  may  serve,  by 
way  of  suggestion,  to  bring  them  in  a  very  incomplete 
measure  before  the  mental  vision.  I  write  of  them  lov- 
ingly, for  they  did  their  work  for  us,  who  were  their 
pupils  in  the  earlier  time,  with  generosity  and  with  wis- 
dom, and  our  remembrance  of  them,  as  we  move  onward 
in  the  later  time,  is  mingled  with  gratitude  and  rever- 
ence. 


VIII. 

The  Old  Faculty — Professors  Silliman  and  Kingsley. 

THE  elder  Professor  Silliman,  when  I  became 
a  member  of  the  College  Faculty,  was  seventy- 
two  years  of  age.  He  was  a  man  of  imposing 
figure  and  dignified  presence — six  feet  in  height  and 
well-proportioned.  His  face  was  uncommonly  intelli- 
gent and  handsome.  His  whole  appearance  and  person- 
ality were  in  a  very  high  degree  impressive.  He  had 
somewhat  of  the  venerableness  of  years,  but  he  retained 
so  much  of  the  energy  and  vigor  of  earlier  life  that  no 
one  could  think  of  him  as  really  old.  In  his  manner, 
he  was  always  genial  and  gracious;  benignant,  as  befitted 
one  in  his  position  and  of  his  established  fame,  and  yet 
friendly  to  all  who  approached  him,  whatever  might  be 
their  age  or  their  station  in  the  world.  As  President 
Woolsey  said  of  him  at  the  time  of  his  death,  I  think 
we  may  truly  say  to-day,  after  an  interval  of  nearly  forty 
years:  "  He  was,  among  all  the  men  who  have  lived  in 
the  city  of  New  Haven  during  the  century,  as  I  think 
will  be  conceded  by  everybody,  the  most  finished  gentle- 
man. And  this  was  true  of  him  in  the  highest  sense.  I 
mean,  that  it  pertained  not  to  his  exterior,  but  to  his 
character  and  his  soul." 

At  the  time  of  which  I  am  writing,  he  had  held  his 
professorship  for  forty-nine  years,  his  appointment  hav- 
ing been  given  him  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-three. 
During  twenty  or  more  of  these  years,  he  had  been  not 
only  a  teacher  honored  and  admired  by  his  pupils,  but 
also  a  lecturer  of  great  reputation  and  of  the  highest  SUL 
114 


PROFESSOR   BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

cess  in  the  leading  cities  of  the  country.  As  a  consequence 
of  this  fact,  he  had  become  the  most  conspicuous  repre- 
sentative of  the  College  before  the  general  public,  and 
had  rendered  the  institution  an  almost  inestimable  ser- 
vice at  a  critical  period  of  its  history,  contributing,  in  a 
large  measure,  to  the  establishment  and  permanency  of 
its  national  fame. 

To  his  earlier  students — those  who  came  under  his 
instruction  during  the  first  half  or  two-thirds  of  his 
official  career — and  to  the  large  numbers  of  cultured 
people  whom  he  so  frequently  addressed  in  his  public 
lectures,  the  scientific  subjects  on  which  he  spoke  were 
comparatively  new  as  matters  of  thought  or  knowledge. 
He  presented  himself  to  his  audiences,  accordingly,  with 
what  was  to  their  minds  a  kind  of  strange  revelation  of 
exceeding  interest.  He  had  thus  a  good  fortune,  which 
no  one  could  have  in  these  days  of  such  remarkable  de- 
velopment in  every  branch  of  science,  and  he  was  en- 
abled, because  of  it,  to  awaken  greater  enthusiasm  than 
those  who  followed  him  or,  at  a  later  period  of  his  own 
career,  even  he  himself  could  possibly  excite.  His  lan- 
guage and  style  however,  his  wonderful  facility  of  ex- 
pression and  clearness  of  statement,  and  the  grace  and 
force  of  his  presentation  of  his  thought  were  admirably 
fitted  to  arrest  and  hold  the  attention  of  his  hearers  at 
all  times,  as  well  as  to  impress  upon  their  memory  the 
facts  and  truths  which  he  brought  before  them.  With 
respect  to  the  matter  and  the  manner  of  his  public  teach- 
ing, he  was  certainly  one  of  the  most  prominent  and 
successful  of  the  men  of  his  era. 

He  has  been  justly  called  the  father  of  natural  science 
at  Yale.  He  created  his  department  of  investigation 
and  instruction  in  the  College.  The  story  which  he  used 
to  tell  his  students  of  his  carrying  all  the  minerals  which 
the  institution  possessed  in  a  small  candle-box  to  Phila- 
delphia, when  he  went  there  for  the  purpose  of  study, 
us 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

was  illustrative  of  the  conditions  under  which  he  began 
his  work  in  every  line.  He  was  indeed  one  of  the  few 
men  who  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  pioneers  in  the  sphere 
of  natural  science  in  our  country.  He  had  seen  the 
growth  of  all  things  in  this  department  of  knowledge 
from  the  very  beginning,  and  he  enjoyed  in  later  life  the 
satisfaction  which  comes,  in  full  measure,  to  those  who 
have  been  originators  of  what  is  new  and  good  and  have 
lived  to  witness  the  great  results  to  which  they  looked 
forward,  at  the  outset,  only  with  mingled  hopes  and 
fears. 

It  is  not  strange  that,  after  fifty  years  of  such  interest- 
ing experience  and  such  wide-reaching  thoughts  and 
efforts,  a  man  of  established  fame  and  genial  nature 
should  not  have  had  the  deepest  interest  in  the  ordinary 
meetings  of  a  College  Faculty,  which  were  mainly  de- 
voted to  minor  matters  of  government,  or  that  at  times, 
while  present  in  body  with  his  brethren  as  they  were 
thus  assembled,  he  should  have  been  absent  in  spirit — 
his  thoughts  dwelling  apart,  in  the  inner  self,  or  with 
the  old  friends  and  the  old  memories.  Fifty  years  make 
a  long  period;  and  I  suppose  that  every  kind-hearted 
man,  after  the  passing  of  such  a  time,  grows  a  little 
weary  of  discipline,  and  begins  to  think  some  questions 
of  small  moment  comparatively,  which  he  once  deemed 
great  in  their  significance.  At  all  events,  it  was  so  in  his 
case;  and  I  am  glad  that  it  was. 

It  was  delightful  to  see  him  come  back,  as  it  were, 
from  a  far  off  meditation  when,  after  an  hour's  discus- 
sion of  some  particular  case  or  question,  the  President 
suddenly  asked  him,  as  the  first  of  the  company,  to  ex- 
press his  opinion.  How  benignantly  and  graciously — 
utterly  unmoved  by  the  fact,  which  he  knew  of  course 
must  be  apparent  to  all,  that  he  was  ignorant  of  what 
had  been  said — he  would  ask  as  to  the  individual  or  the 
subject  under  consideration.  And  then  how  calmly,  and 
116 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

with  dignity,  he  would  offer  the  judgment  which  seemed 
to  him,  at  the  moment,  to  be  best.  If  the  matter  related 
to  an  individual  student,  his  friendly  sentiment  disposed 
him  to  tenderness  and  leniency.  I  well  remember  one 
illustrative  case,  respecting  which  there  had  been  long- 
continued  deliberation,  with  the  differences  of  views  that 
were  frequently  manifest,  and  the  minds  of  some  of  the 
gentlemen  were  convinced  that  disciplinary  measures 
were  essential.  The  kindly  professor  was  requested  to 
give  the  first  vote  in  the  decision.  He  took  the  College 
Catalogue  which  was  lying  on  the  table  near  him,  and 
opening  it  he  said,  "  What  is  the  student's  name,  Mr. 
President?  "  "  Jones,"  the  President  replied.  "  Ah," 
said  he,  after  turning  over  the  pages  somewhat  carefully, 
"  Jones  of  the  Junior  Class?  "  "  Yes,"  was  the  reply. 
"  I  notice  that  he  is  from  Baltimore,"  the  professor  an- 
swered; "when  I  was  lecturing  in  that  city,  his  father 
entertained  me  most  hospitably  at  his  house.  I  think  I 
would  treat  the  young  man  as  leniently  as  possible." 
Jones  was  not  the  young  man's  name,  though  I  have  al- 
lowed myself  to  call  him  so.  I  do  not  recall  what  fate 
befel  him  as  the  result  of  the  vote  on  that  afternoon.  I 
think  it  not  unlikely  that  I  voted  on  the  unfavorable  side. 
Very  possibly,  that  side  of  the  case  was  the  right  and 
reasonable  one  to  take.  But  it  was  not  a  matter  of  in- 
finite importance,  and  may  well  be  forgotten  after  so 
long  a  time.  There  was,  however,  given  to  us,  on  that 
day,  a  vision  for  a  moment  of  the  kindly  sentiment  of  a 
gracious  gentleman,  which  remains  with  me  at  this  hour, 
and  which  I  think  may,  if  remembered,  have  done  more 
of  good  for  all  those  to  whom  it  was  given,  than  any 
mistaken  vote  could  have  done  of  injury  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  academic  community.  Of  course,  if  every 
one  had  imitated  the  professor,  all  discipline  might  have 
been  endangered.  But  there  was,  in  those  days,  no 
tendency  toward  such  imitation,  and  the  dangers,  what- 
117 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

ever  they  may  have  been,  were  safely  passed.  I  think 
that  they  pass  thus  more  frequently — more,  if  I  may  so 
say,  as  a  general  rule — than  many  are  apt  to  suppose. 

On  another  occasion,  the  remembrance  of  which  has 
lingered  with  me,  the  attention  of  the  Faculty  was  called 
by  the  President  to  the  approaching  biennial  examina- 
tions. These  examinations  were  instituted  in  the  year 
1850-51,  and  were  held  at  the  close  of  the  Sophomore 
and  Senior  years,  for  each  college  class.  They  were  the 
first  of  the  written,  as  contrasted  with  oral,  examinations 
which  were  established.  As  they  were  attended  by,  or  at 
least  liable  to,  some  of  the  evils  which  have  been 
noticed  in  later  days,  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  appoint 
several  supervisors  who  should  be  present  at  each  ses- 
sion, and  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  prevent  the  use  of 
any  improper  helps  on  the  part  of  the  students,  as  well 
as  any  communication  on  their  part  with  one  another. 
The  supervisors  were  selected  by  the  Faculty  from  their 
own  number,  and  were  assigned  to  their  work  in  connec- 
tion with  such  sessions  as  they  might  choose  to  attend. 
The  duty  was  regarded  by  the  instructors  generally  as  a 
somewhat  burdensome  one,  but  yet  as  one  of  serious  im- 
portance. They  had  a  certain  want  of  confidence  in  a 
large  company  of  young  men,  assembled  under  circum- 
stances not  unaccompanied  by  a  considerable  measure  of 
temptation.  But  the  gentle  andkindly professor,  of  whom 
I  am  writing,  had  a  trustfulness  respecting  others,  which 
was  founded  upon  what  he  knew  of  himself.  An  edu- 
cated student  in  his  Senior  year,  he  said  to  himself,  must 
be  a  man  of  honor.  Why  distrust  him,  or  make  him  the 
object  of  suspicion?  And  so,  on  this  occasion  to  which 
I  have  alluded,  when  the  President  turned  to  him  and 
said,  "  Are  you,  sir,  willing  to  act  as  one  of  the  super- 
visors in  the  examination  session  for  the  Senior  Class  on 
Tuesday  morning  next?  "  he  replied,  with  much  suavity 
of  manner,  "  Certainly,  Mr.  President,  if  the  gentlemen 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  the  Faculty  desire  me  to  do  so,  though,  so  far  as  my 
own  opinion  is  concerned,  such  supervision  is  entirely 
unnecessary.  Our  students,  I  am  sure,  are  young  gen- 
tlemen of  honorable  character,  and  will  take  no  unfair 
advantage  if  left  to  themselves."  His  idea  of  the  gen- 
tleman was  an  exalted  one,  but  not  above  the  true  ideal. 
His  thought  of  the  Yale  student  was,  that  he  was  a  gen- 
tleman who  should  be  growing  towards  the  ideal,  as  he 
was  moving  on  in  the  academic  years. 

I  picture  to  my  mind  the  thoughts  of  those  who  sat 
around  me  at  that  meeting — I  recall  some  of  my  own 
thoughts.  How  absurd,  and  like  an  old  man  who  had 
forgotten  his  youth,  his  words  seemed  to  us.  We  said 
to  ourselves,  or  to  one  another,  "  No  doubt,  if  a  man 
with  such  notions  is  to  be  a  supervisor,  the  young  fellows 
might  as  well  be  without  one,  as  with  one.  Happily  the 
other  members  of  the  Faculty  have  more  wisdom  than 
this.  Otherwise,  what  would  become  of  discipline  and 
honesty  and  scholarship  among  the  students?  "  The 
professor  was  certainly  in  a  minority  of  one.  Years  have 
passed  since  then,  and  I  have  been  a  somewhat  close  ob- 
server of  college  life,  in  our  own  institution  and  else- 
where. I  have  no  theory  or  system  for  which  I  desire 
to  contend  on  these  pages.  But  I  have  noticed,  as  I  have 
moved  onward — and  it  has  been  very  noticeable,  in  the 
recent  years — that  college  officers  everywhere  have  lost, 
in  good  measure,  their  confidence  in  the  old  supervising 
methods  as  connected  with  examinations,  and  that  an 
increasing  emphasis  is  given  to  the  call  for  the  "  honor 
system."  The  progress  of  half  a  century  has  turned 
the  thoughts  of  educators  towards  new  views  and  a  new 
order  of  things,  and  I  can  easily  believe  that,  if  the 
men  who  were  in  that  meeting  of  the  bygone  time  could 
assemble  again  in  the  same  place  to-day,  with  the  influ- 
ences of  the  world's  movement  working  in  their  minds, 
the  younger  ones  of  the  company  might  listen  to  the 

119 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

words  of  the  oldest,  which  he  then  uttered,  with  more 
doubts  as  to  their  former  opinions,  and  more  respect  for 
his  wisdom. 

As  I  am  referring  to  his  kindly  sentiment  towards 
students,  and  the  trustfulness  which  he  manifested  in  his 
dealings  with  them,  I  cannot  forbear  to  mention  a  little 
circumstance  of  my  personal  college  history.  It  had 
no  significance  in  itself,  but  it  was  one  of  the  every-day 
minor  things  which  were  constantly  exhibited  in  his  inter- 
course with  pupils,  showing  the  heart  and  feeling  of  the 
man.  I  had  presented  myself  before  him,  on  a  certain 
occasion  near  the  end  of  my  academic  course,  for  an 
examination  on  studies  in  his  department.  He  asked  me 
to  take  a  chair  near  him  in  his  room,  and  then,  in  a  way 
peculiar  to  himself — a  way  which  was  very  helpful, 
rather  than  embarrassing  to  the  student — he  questioned 
me  on  various  points  for  half  an  hour.  Then,  rising  and 
going  to  his  table,  he  looked  at  some  papers,  and,  select- 
ing one,  said:  "  I  suppose  you  would  like  to  have  me 
give  you  a  certificate  that  your  examination  has  been 
satisfactory,  which  you  may  hand  to  the  President."  I 
gave  him,  of  course,  an  affirmative  answer.  He  then 
handed  me  the  paper,  saying,  "  Not  doubting  that  you 
would  pass,  I  wrote  the  certificate  before  you  came  in." 
These  last  words  that  he  spoke  were  better,  if  possible, 
than  my  assured  success.  They  have  remained  in  my 
memory  as  a  part  of  my  mental  picture  of  the  man. 

The  men  who  knew  him  much  earlier  than  I  did — 
such  men,  for  example,  as  Professor  Thacher  and  Dr. 
Woolsey — saw  more  of  him  in  what  may  be  called  the 
governmental  relation.  Their  testimony  shows  that  he 
was,  in  all  cases  of  serious  importance  or  grave  emer- 
gency, a  wise  disciplinarian,  and  even,  as  Dr.  Woolsey 
expressed  it,  a  "  tower  of  strength  "  to  the  government. 
In  his  personal  diary  of  the  year  1830,  the  professor 
himself  says — in  referring  to  a  college  rebellion  in  which 
120 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

nearly  one-half  of  the  Sophomore  class  had  participated 
— "  We,  on  our  part,  have  come  to  the  painful  but 
necessary  decision  that  none  of  these  youths  shall  ever 
return  to  the  institution."  Professor  Thacher  says  of 
him,  "  He  was  willing  to  take  his  share  of  the  labor  and 
responsibility  of  discipline  in  all  serious  cases,  and  was 
quite  ready  to  administer  personal  rebuke  to  students 
who  were  improper  in  their  behavior."  But  even  in 
those  earlier  days,  President  Woolsey  states  that  "  no 
especial  part  of  the  college  discipline  fell  on  him,"  and 
that  "  it  was  natural,  therefore,  that  he  should  think  less 
of  rules  than  those  whose  business  it  is  to  enforce  them;  " 
.and  Professor  Thacher  adds,  "  He  was  somewhat  impa- 
tient of  rules  against  petty  offences,  and  reminded  us  [of 
the  Faculty]  that  he  had  protested  against  the  adoption 
of  a  system  of  rules  which  culminated  in  dismissing  from 
college  every  student  who  incurred  twenty  marks  for 
absence  from  college  exercises  in  a  term."  He  was  thus 
the  same  person  in  1850  that  he  had  been  twenty  years 
earlier,  only  that  he  had  grown  more  genial  with  the 
passing  of  time.  He  was  no  weak  man,  unable  to  cope 
with  difficulties  or  to  meet  emergencies.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  was  a  high-toned  gentleman,  who  trusted  others 
because  of  what  he  knew  to  be  within  himself.  As  a 
consequence,  he  sometimes  dealt  with  them  more  gently 
than  they  deserved.  But  he  left  upon  all  who  were 
capable  of  receiving  it  an  impression  of  himself  which 
was  stimulating  to  manliness  and  was  permanent  in  its 
character. 

Professor  Silliman's  instruction  was  given  to  the  col- 
lege students  wholly  in  lectures.  For  this  kind  of  teach- 
ing he  was  especially  qualified.  He  had  a  remarkable 
command  of  language,  and  an  unusual  facility  and  fe- 
licity in  the  use  of  it.  His  utterance  was  clear  and  dis- 
tinct, though  very  rapid,  and  there  was  an  alternate 
raising  and  lowering  of  the  voice,  as  he  spoke — a  kind 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  ocean-swell  of  tone,  if  I  may  so  call  it — which  was 
adapted  to  his  style  and  rendered  what  he  said  even  more 
attractive  to  his  hearers.  He  had,  also,  in  connection 
with  his  rapidity  of  utterance,  a  constant  quickness  of 
mental  movement,  by  reason  of  which  he  easily  gathered 
into  his  sentences,  in  the  way  of  subordinate  clauses,  ex- 
pressions of  side  thoughts  which  added  continual  fresh- 
ness to  his  discourse  and  gave  it  a  special  interest  for  the 
hearer.  He  thus  kept  the  mind  delightfully  awake 
through  constant  surprises,  while  he  set  forth  his  teach- 
ings with  distinctness  and  emphasis. 

He  illustrated  his  lectures,  and  roused  the  attention  of 
his  student  audiences  when  it  lagged  for  a  moment,  by 
pertinent  and  oftentimes  amusing  stories.  Some  of  these 
were  old — that  is,  old  for  him  and  many  times  repeated 
to  successive  classes,  but  not  old  in  the  sense  that  they 
had  long  been  known  everywhere  and  had  become  a  kind 
of  public  property.  All  things  pertaining  to  his  lan- 
guage and  his  manner  of  speaking  were  his  own  and 
peculiar  to  himself.  But,  like  other  professors  and 
teachers  who  indulge  themselves  in  story-telling,  he  re- 
garded each  class  that  came  before  him  as  an  entirely 
new  audience,  and  allowed  himself  a  certain  freedom 
of  repetition  in  consequence.  If  no  such  freedom  were 
permitted,  the  college  instructor  would  be,  in  this  regard, 
at  a  disadvantage  as  compared  with  other  men.  The 
pupils,  also,  would  lose  many  illustrations,  not  only 
pleasant  but  impressive,  for  the  single  and  certainly  in- 
sufficient reason  that  they  had  been  given  to  their  pre- 
decessors at  an  earlier  time.  Occasionally,  of  course, 
such  stories  are  passed  from  class  to  class,  and  become, 
by  this  means,  familiar  to  the  new  hearers  before  they 
are  related  to  them  by  the  teacher.  In  general,  however, 
they  do  not  fail  of  their  purpose,  even  if  this  be  the  fact. 
Almost  all  good  things  will  bear  repetition,  and  the  life 
of  good  stories  is  to  be  found  largely  in  the  momentary 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

application  of  them.  The  excellent  professor  of  whom  I 
am  writing  knew  when  and  where  to  use  his  material  of 
this  character.  While  the  material  might,  perchance, 
be  old  in  itself,  it  might  not  be  so,  by  any  means,  in  the 
purpose  which  he  made  it  serve.  He  certainly  under- 
stood the  art  of  rendering  his  lectures  in  a  high  degree 
interesting  to  all  his  classes,  as  they  followed  one  another 
along  the  years. 

Not  very  long  after  my  graduation,  I  happened,  ac- 
cidentally, to  attend  a  lecture  on  chemistry  given  by  the 
professor,  in  his  regular  course  with  the  Senior  Class,  in 
company  with  two  gentlemen  who  had  graduated  twenty- 
two  and  thirty-four  years  before  myself.  As  we  came 
away  at  the  close  of  the  hour,  and  were  walking  across 
the  college  yard,  our  conversation  naturally  turned  to 
what  had  been  said,  and  to  the  characteristics  of  the 
speaker.  After  a  few  moments,  while  we  talked  of  his 
peculiar  style  and  the  attractiveness  of  his  discourse  and 
manner,  I  alluded  to  the  stories  which  he  had  told,  and 
to  my  remembrance  of  some  of  them  as  given  to  my  own 
class  when  we  were  Seniors.  The  younger  of  the  two 
gentlemen  immediately  stated  that  he  had  heard  one  or 
two  of  them  when  he  was  in  his  Senioryear,and  the  other 
added  a  similar  statement  with  respect  to  his  own  col- 
lege experience.  And  yet  neither  of  the  two  gave  more 
than  a  passing  thought  to  the  fact  of  the  repetition. 
Their  thoughts  were  occupied  with  their  interest  in  the 
man,  and  in  their  hearing  him  again  as  in  the  older 
time. 

The  testimony  to  his  ability  and  success  as  a  lec- 
turer is  abundant  and  comes  from  the  highest  sources. 
Dr.  Woolsey  remarks  of  him,  in  this  regard,  that  he  was 
unsurpassed,  and  all  audiences  delighted  to  hear  him. 
"  In  his  own  lecture  room,"  he  adds,  "  the  students  felt 
the  genial  sway  of  his  oratory.  No  other  such  instruc- 
tions were  given,  uniting  at  once  pleasure  and  improve- 
123 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

ment.  Hence  for  many  years  the  study  of  chemistry 
was,  perhaps,  the  most  popular  one  in  the  institution." 
The  late  Professor  Jeffries  Wyman — in  a  letter  which  we 
find  in  the  Biography  of  Mr.  Silliman  already  men- 
tioned— said  of  his  lectures  in  Boston,  in  1840:  "  His 
gifts  as  a  teacher  were  of  such  marked  excellence  that  it 
is  not  easy  to  do  justice  to  them.  There  was  a  charm 
in  his  cordial  manner  and  genial  temperament  which  at- 
tracted all,  and  a  sympathy  at  once  grew  up  between 
himself  and  his  audience.  As  he  entered  the  room,  they 
were  assured  by  the  dignity  of  his  presence  and  the 
earnestness  of  his  manner  that  his  heart  was  in  the  work. 
The  best  evidence  of  his  power  is  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  he  was  able  to  hold  the  attention  of  so  large  a 
number  [some  fifteen  hundred  persons,  it  is  said]  for 
two  consecutive  hours,  with  only  a  short  recess,  not- 
withstanding it  had  become  the  established  usage  in  the 
community  that  a  lecturer  was  not  expected  to  exceed 
a  single  hour."  Testimonies  like  these,  to  which  many 
others  might  be  added,  had  reference  to  the  days  of  his 
highest  activity  and  success,  and  a  period  which  pre- 
ceded my  own  college  years  or  my  personal  knowledge 
of  him.  But  the  power  and  attractiveness  of  the  earlier 
time  lingered,  in  its  measure,  in  the  later,  and  his  pupils 
who  were  my  contemporaries  have  a  lively  recollection 
of  the  winsomeness  of  his  manner  as  a  speaker  and  of  a 
certain  eloquence  peculiar  to  himself. 

In  view  of  what  he  was  as  he  presented  himself  before 
the  public  on  occasions  of  interest  and  importance,  it 
was  natural  that  he  should  have  been  oftentimes  selected 
as  the  representative  of  the  College,  who  should  urge 
upon  its  friends  the  generous  consideration  of  its  wel- 
fare or  the  importance  of  its  enlargement  and  growth. 
During  the  period  from  1820  to  1850,  he  served  the 
institution  in  this  sphere  of  its  more  public  life,  in  a 
degree  be^  ond  any  of  his  associates  in  the  Faculty.  He 
124 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

drew  favorable  attention  to  the  College  wherever  he 
journeyed  throughout  the  country,  and,  in  this  way,  con- 
tributed in  no  small  measure  to  the  increase  of  its  stu- 
dent-membership. In  the  matter  of  its  resources,  also — 
though  that  period  was  an  era  of  limitation  and  of  com- 
paratively little  wealth — he  was  one  of  those  on  whose 
activity  and  influence  in  critical  seasons  especial  reliance 
and  confidence  were  reposed.  Even  as  late  as  the  year 
1851,  when  a  special  effort  was  made  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  an  addition  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
to  the  funds  of  the  institution,  he  was,  although  in  ad- 
vanced age,  called  upon  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  first 
presentation  of  the  matter  to  the  graduates.  His  appeals 
were  addressed  to  them  with  a  characteristic  earnestness 
and  impressiveness. 

It  is  not  the  object  of  these  brief  sketches  to  give  any 
full  description  of  the  men  to  whom  they  relate — much 
less  to  set  forth  their  work  in  life  in  its  wide  range  and 
extent,  or  in  its  bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  the  genera- 
tion to  which  they  belonged.  I  only  desire  to  picture 
them  as  I  saw  them  from  my  point  of  outlook  in  the 
associations  of  the  Faculty  life,  and  from  my  youthful 
age  when  they  were  older  or  even  venerable  men.  I 
cannot  refrain,  however,  from  referring  to  the  high 
Christian  principle  which  marked  Professor  Silliman  in 
his  daily  living  and  in  his  intercourse  with  men;  to  his 
genuine  respect  and  kindly  consideration  for  those  who 
were  inferior  to  himself  in  social  rank,  or  were  deprived 
of  the  privileges  which  he  had  enjoyed;  to  his  gentleness 
and  grace  in  his  meetings  with  children;  to  his  courtesy 
towards  all — such  courtesy  as  was  characteristic  of  the 
so-called  "  gentleman  of  the  old  school."  This  courtesy 
was  so  natural  to  him  that  he  never  lost  it  even  for  a 
moment  or  among  his  most  intimate  friends.  His  ex- 
pressions had  somewhat  of  the  formality  of  the  earlier 
times — as  when,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  his  wife  which  is 
125 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

given  in  the  Biography,  he  said  of  a  gentleman  whom  he 
had  just  met  in  Washington,  "  He  reminded  me  of  your 
excellent  father,  the  late  Governor  Trumbull."  But 
they  were  so  characteristic  of  himself,  and  so  natural  to 
him,  that  they  only  made  the  man  more  strikingly  mani- 
fest. The  lessons  which  the  presence  of  such  a  man 
in  the  Faculty  of  a  college  impresses  upon  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  its  students,  in  successive  years,  are  such  as 
find  silent,  yet  forceful  entrance  into  many  lives,  and 
abide  after  the  memory  has  lost  from  itself  many  of  the 
old  experiences  and  much  of  the  old  knowledge. 

The  lines  of  Cowper,  which  Professor  Fisher  places 
at  the  beginning  of  his  Biography  of  Professor  Silliman, 
are  so  true  to  the  man  as  he  was,  that  I  may  fitly  close  my 
brief  description  of  him,  by  repeating  them: — 

Peace  to  the  memory  of  a  man  of  worth, 

A  man  of  letters,  and  of  manners  too  ! 

Of  manners  sweet  as  virtue  always  wears, 

When  gay  good  nature  dresses  her  in  smiles. 

He  graced  a  college,  in  which  order  yet 

Was  sacred  ;  and  was  honored,  loved,  and  wept, 

By  more  than  one,  themselves  conspicuous  there. 


Professor  Kingsley,  as  I  have  said  on  a  previous  page, 
had  just  become  a  Professor  Emeritus  when  I  entered 
upon  my  full  term  of  office  as  a  tutor,  and  had  conse- 
quently ceased  to  be  an  active  member  of  the  Faculty. 
He  was,  however,  still  so  closely  connected  with  his 
former  colleagues,  and  was,  at  the  same  time,  so  inter- 
esting and  conspicuous  a  personage  in  himself,  that  no 
record  of  the  Faculty  of  that  period  could  be  complete, 
which  should  omit  a  reference  to  him  and  his  work. 
Moreover,  he  had  been  an  instructor  in  his  own  depart- 
ment of  study,  the  Latin  language,  during  the  whole  of 
my  undergraduate  course,  and  my  class  became  ac- 
quainted with  him  in  this  relation  in  the  latter  part  of 
126 


PROFESSOR    JAMES    L.    KINGSLEY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

our  Junior  year.  I  can  speak  of  him,  therefore,  as  one 
of  whom  I  had  a  knowledge  similar  to  that  which  I  was 
enabled  to  gain  of  the  other  gentlemen  who  were  in  the 
membership  of  the  board  of  teachers. 

Mr.  Kingsley  was  born  a  year  earlier  than  Mr.  Silli- 
man,  but  by  reason  of  longer  delay  in  entering  upon  his 
collegiate  studies,  he  did  not  graduate  until  three  years 
after  his  friend  and  associate.  They  were,  however,  in 
the  full  sense  of  the  word  contemporaries.  The  aca- 
demic life  belonged,  in  part,  for  both  of  them  within 
the  limits  of  the  same  college  generation.  Both  of  them 
were  called  to  the  tutorial  office  after  their  graduation, 
.and  for  a  single  year  they  were  united  in  discharging 
its  duties.  Mr.  Silliman  was  appointed  to  his  professor- 
ship in  1802;  Mr.  Kingsley  received  his  appointment  in 
1805.  For  nearly  half  a  century  they  worked  together 
in  harmony  and  friendship,  for  the  well-being  of  the 
institution. 

The  two  men  were  unlike  each  other  in  many  respects. 
In  some  points,  they  were  the  counterparts  of  each  other. 
The  one  was,  as  I  have  described  him,  a  man  of  impres- 
sive personal  presence;  of  marked  gifts  as  a  public 
teacher  and  lecturer;  of  qualities  which  fitted  him  to  be 
a  pioneer  in  science  and  a  force  for  education  in  the 
community;  and  of  such  grace  of  manner,  dignity  of 
bearing,  and  winsomeness  of  speech  as  to  render  him 
both  interesting  and  attractive,  even  to  strangers  who  had 
the  privilege  of  meeting  him  but  for  a  brief  season.  The 
other  was  a  retiring  scholar;  a  penetrating  critic;  pos- 
sessed of  the  keenest  intelligence  and  wit;  accurate  in  the 
extreme;  a  clear,  pungent,  and  vigorous  writer,  but  not 
a  speaker — not  even  having  strength  or  volume  of  voice 
sufficient  to  make  him  easily  heard  in  a  large  assembly; 
a  man  to  help  forward  learning,  but  not  having  the  gift 
nor  the  wish  to  press  himself  forcibly  upon  the  general 
public.  Their  labors  in,  and  on  behalf  of,  the  College 
127 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

were  in  widely  different  lines,  but  they  co-operated  in  the 
most  generous  spirit,  and  were  alike  of  greatest  service 
to  its  highest  interests. 

In  the  earliest  days  of  Professor  Kingsley's  official 
life,  his  sphere  of  instruction  included  not  only  the  Latin 
but  also  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  languages.  The  work 
in  the  two  latter,  however,  had  been  laid  aside  after 
other  specially  appointed  professors  were  called  into  the 
service  of  the  institution,  and  from  1835  onwards  he 
confined  his  teaching  to  the  Latin  department.  During 
the  period  of  my  own  college  course  he  had  the  valuable 
assistance  of  Professor  Thacher,  whom  he  looked  upon 
with  pleasure  as  the  one  who  should  succeed  him  in  his 
chair,  and  he  was  already  passing  into  his  hands  a  large 
share  of  the  duties  pertaining  to  it.  Our  meetings  with 
him,  accordingly,  were  comparatively  few  in  number  and 
were  limited  to  a  brief  portion  of  a  single  year.  We 
had,  however,  the  opportunity  to  observe  his  character- 
istics as  an  instructor,  and  to  get  an  impression  of  what 
he  had  been  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of  his  manhood. 

As  Professor  Kingsley  took  up  his  work  with  us,  we 
saw  at  once  that  he  met  us  with  no  severity  of  manner, 
but  with  a  kindly  and  benignant  spirit — yet  with  an  evi- 
dent feeling  in  his  own  mind  that  we  did  not  know  as 
much  about  Latin  as  we  might,  or  as  much  as,  very  pos- 
sibly, we  ourselves  thought  we  did.  He  also  made  it 
manifest  to  us,  from  the  very  beginning,  that  he  had 
what  I  may  call  an  intense  accuracy,  or  love  of  accuracy, 
and  that  his  intention  was  to  let  us  see  that  no  slightest 
error  could  escape  his  notice.  He  had,  as  it  were,  a  pas- 
sion for  correcting  the  student  in  his  translations,  or  his 
pronunciation  of  Latin  words,  so  that  he  seemed,  in  an 
amusing  way,  to  be  grieved  or  aggrieved,  if  he  was 
obliged,  in  any  case,  to  accept  what  was  given  as  satis- 
factory. To  such  an  extent,  or  even  excess,  did  he  carry 
this  habit,  if  I  may  give  it  the  name,  that,  in  cases  where 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

there  were  two  possible,  and  perchance  equally  possible, 
renderings  of  a  word,  he  would  correct  the  student  in 
opposite  ways,  on  successive  days.  That  is  to  say,  if  the 
word  was  translated  by  the  young  man  in  a  way  which  I 
may  designate  by  a  b,  in  a  passage  that  was  contained  in 
what  was  called  the  advance  lesson,  on  a  certain  Mon- 
day, he  would  direct  him  to  render  it  by  c  d.  When  the 
same  passage  came  to  be  read  in  the  review  lesson  on  the 
next  day,  the  person  called  upon  to  recite  would  naturally 
give  the  translation  c  d.  But  to  his  surprise,  and  to  the 
surprise  and  entertainment  of  his  fellow-students,  he 
would  find  himself  immediately  called  upon  by  the  pro- 
fessor to  substitute  for  it  the  rendering  a  b.  Evidently, 
the  good  man  knew  that  the  word  had  equal  claims  to 
both  meanings.  But  with  his  two  long-established  habits 
of  accuracy  on  the  one  hand,  and  making  corrections  on 
the  other,  he  was  unable  to  resist  the  impulse  to  set  the 
pupil  right,  whatever  the  pupil  might  do. 

Such  corrections  were  also  rendered  more  emphatic 
and  striking — as  were,  indeed,  all  others  that  he  made — 
by  the  fact  that  he  would,  in  each  case,  repeat  the 
changed  translation  or  pronunciation,  which  he  sug- 
gested, until  the  student  adopted  it  for  himself.  They 
were  also  emphasized  in  the  impression  which  they  pro- 
duced by  the  feebleness  of  his  voice.  They  would  come 
forth,  as  it  were,  through  an  effort  of  all  the  powers  of 
the  man,  uniting  themselves  to  make  the  utterance  dis- 
tinct and  authoritative.  But  all  was  done  in  the  kindliest 
way.  The  pleasant  smile  on  his  face  and  the  friendly 
humor  indicated  in  his  whole  bearing  were  as  far  re- 
moved from  the  characteristics  of  the  stern  pedagogue 
or  exacting  professor  as  possible.  We  were  always 
ready  for  his  appointed  exercises  and  had  a  certain 
peculiar  enjoyment  in  them. 

College  professors  and  teachers  differ  very  widely 
in  their  attitude  towards  students,  as  well, as  in  their 
129 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

methods  of  dealing  with  them  in  the  recitation  room. 
Some  instructors,  even  though  they  may  secure  discipline 
and  maintain  order  by  a  certain  authoritative  manner  or 
personality,  have  little  appreciation  of  the  student  mind 
or  knowledge  of  the  happiest  way  of  meeting  it.  Com- 
paratively few — perhaps  I  may  say — have  any  full 
understanding  of  the  power  which  kindly  humor  gives 
the  teacher  over  the  company  of  his  pupils  in  the  under- 
graduate years.  I  would  not  affirm — of  course,  I  would 
not — that  such  humor  is  the  best  gift  which  an  instructor 
can  have  as  fitting  him  for  his  work.  It  is  certainly  not 
the  best  gift  in  every  point  of  view.  It  may  not  even 
be  the  best  for  his  work  as  a  disciplinarian,  though  if  we 
consider  it  in  all  its  relations  and  influences  as  bearing 
upon  them  and  upon  himself,  I  am  not  sure  but  it  is. 
Whether  it  is  or  is  not  the  best,  however,  it  is,  beyond 
question,  one  of  the  best.  Many  men  fail  in  a  most  un- 
fortunate way  for  the  want  of  it.  Many  who  have 
partial  success  find  their  success  attended  constantly  by 
friction  and  ill-feeling  because  it  is  not  an  element  in 
their  mental  constitution. 

Professor  Kingsley  had  this  happy  gift  in  abundant 
measure.  In  my  college  days,  certainly,  he  had  no  other 
humor  than  that  which  was  kindly — and  I  doubt  whether 
in  his  wit  which  was  often  brilliant,  or  his  satire  which 
was  most  incisive,  he  was  ever  impelled  by  any  spirit 
of  genuine  unfriendliness  or  hostility.  But  his  arrows 
always  hit  the  mark  and  effected  his  purpose.  In  the 
recitation  room  he  was  almost  inimitable  in  his  humorous 
way  of  meeting  difficulties  or  adapting  himself  to  an 
emergency.  I  may  refer,  as  a  single  instance,  to  an 
incident  which,  though  quite  insignificant  in  itself,  has 
by  some  strange  chance  remained  in  my  memory  from 
my  college  days.  As  we  assembled,  one  day,  for  our 
recitation  in  the  Professor's  lecture  room,  a  classmate 
of  mine  by  the  name  of  Campbell,  took  his  dog  with 
130 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

him.  The  dog  moved  about  the  room  somewhat,  and 
of  course  excited  the  attention  and  interest  of  the  class 
considerably,  before  the  Professor  appeared;  just  as  he 
entered  the  door,  however,  Campbell  carefully  placed 
the  creature  under  his  own  seat  and,  as  he  supposed, 
quite  out  of  sight.  All  became  quiet,  and  the  beginning 
of  the  exercise  was  awaited,  but  there  was  a  little  longer 
pause  than  usual  on  the  Professor's  part;  and  then  in  an 
undertone,  almost  a  stage-whisper,  he  said,  "  Campbell, 
either  you  or  the  dog  will  have  to  go  out."  These  words 
were  followed  by  the  departure  of  one  of  the  two — I 
need  not  say  which — and  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  the 
class  ever  afterward  was  that,  whatever  might  happen 
elsewhere,  it  would  be  desirable  to  keep  all  disorder  and 
impropriety  outside  of  Professor  Kingsley's  lecture 
room.  The  professor  won  for  himself  the  kindly  feeling 
of  all,  even  of  Campbell  himself,  while  he  settled  satis- 
factorily the  case  of  the  dog,  from  which  the  class  had 
eagerly  expected  some  sudden  embarrassment  for  the 
good  man.  The  boys  found  the  teacher  quicker  and 
shrewder  than  they  were,  and  they  laughed  at  them- 
selves, not  at  him. 

The  College  atmosphere  was  full,  at  the  time,  of  the 
professor's  sharp  and  witty  sayings  which  had  been 
handed  down  gleefully  from  class  to  class  for  years,  and 
we  enjoyed  them  all  as  we  heard  them  repeated  by  our 
elders.  But  he  had  now  come  into  the  mildness  and  gen- 
tleness of  advancing  age,  and  his  wit  was  less  pungent, 
and  less  frequent  in  its  exhibition  of  itself,  than  it  had 
been  in  his  earlier  life. 

I  shall  never  forget,  however,  the  pleasure  with  which 
I  listened,  and  the  satisfaction  which  he  manifested,  as 
he  told  me,  not  long  after  my  graduation,  the  story  of 
his  controversy  nearly  twenty  years  earlier  with  his  con- 
temporary and  college  classmate,  the  late  Professor 
Moses  Stuart  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary — a  con- 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

troversy  which  was  then  somewhat  celebrated.  Pro- 
fessor Stuart  was  an  enthusiastic  and  inspiring  teacher; 
ardent  and  impulsive;  full  of  interest  in  new  ideas,  and 
ready  to  give  them  forth  with  all  confidence  and  em- 
phasis as  soon  as  he  had  received  them.  Mr.  Kingsley 
himself  had  said  to  him,  just  before  he  went  to  Andover, 
"  If  you  go  there,  in  six  months  you  will  make  the  young 
men  there  feel  that  a  knowledge  of  Hebrew  is  as  essen- 
tial to  success  in  the  ministry  as  air  is  necessary  to  animal 
life."  The  word  was  almost  literally  fulfilled.  No  in- 
structor in  any  branch  of  study,  within  the  limits  of  the 
century,  has  had  a  more  awakening  force  for  his  stu- 
dents' minds,  we  may  safely  say,  than  Professor  Stuart 
had  during  a  large  portion  of  his  long  career.  He  was 
however,  too  ardent  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  accurate, 
and  too  absorbingly  interested  in  the  new  things  which 
he  learned,  or  thought  he  learned,  to  test  them  with  the 
utmost  carefulness  before  he  made  them  known  to  his 
pupils.  If  he  had  been  slower,  very  probably  he  would 
have  been  less  interesting.  In  the  matter  of  accuracy  he 
was  far  removed  from  Professor  Kingsley. 

At  one  period  in  his  career  Professor  Stuart  became, 
for  some  reason,  thoroughly  dissatisfied  with  the  results 
of  the  classical  training  of  the  time  in  the  colleges,  as 
manifested  in  his  intercourse  with  the  young  graduates 
who  entered  the  Seminary  at  Andover  for  their  theolog- 
ical studies.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  devote  a  part  of 
the  first  year's  theological  course  to  the  work  of  remedy- 
ing the  evil,  by  going  over  again  with  his  pupils  the  pre- 
paratory studies  in  the  Greek  language.  Not  only  this; 
but,  with  somewhat  vehement  emphasis,  he  made  known 
publicly  the  reason  which,  as  he  declared,  rendered  it 
necessary  for  him  to  make  such  provision  for  supplying 
the  defects  of  college  education.  He  affirmed  that  stu- 
dents from  the  leading  colleges  came  to  his  classes  with- 
out the  ability  to  decline  an  ordinary  Greek  noun  of  the 
132 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

first  declension,  like  /u,ovo-a  (which  was  then  uniformly 
pronounced  mowza) .  This  severe  criticism  of  the  col- 
lege training  came,  in  due  course  of  time,  to  the  ears  of 
Professor  Kingsley,  and  not  unnaturally  excited  his 
mind  in  considerable  measure.  He  knew  his  old  class- 
mate and  fellow-tutor,  now  his  critic,  with  a  pretty  thor- 
ough knowledge.  He  understood  his  strong  points  and 
his  weak  ones,  and  he  felt  sure  that  the  time  would  come, 
ere  long,  when  there  could  be  some  appropriate  criticism 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  question.  The  time,  indeed, 
was  not  long  delayed.  Professor  Stuart  prepared  an 
edition  of  "  Cicero's  Tusculan  Questions,"  in  connection 
with  the  issue  of  which,  if  I  remember  rightly,  it  was 
publicly  intimated  that  it  would  present,  in  some  sense, 
an  example  of  a  properly  ordered  text-book  for  college 
classical  instructors,  suggestive  of  the  true  style  of  teach- 
ing. The  book,  when  it  appeared,  was  characterized  by 
some  of  its  author's  excellences  and  by  some  of  his  weak- 
nesses, and  it  was,  through  many  inaccuracies  of  a  more 
or  less  striking  sort,  a  tempting  subject  for  a  reviewer. 
Professor  Kingsley,  who  had  waited  for  the  publication, 
eagerly  took  upon  himself  the  reviewer's  work.  Aftei* 
a  few  weeks,  he  gave  to  the  public  a  paper,  which  for 
humor  and  wit,  as  well  as  for  scholarly  criticism,  was 
of  a  surpassing  character.  Nothing  which  equalled  it 
had  for  years  appeared  in  the  literary  journals  of  the 
period. 

The  Professor  told  me  the  story,  in  answer  to  my  inter- 
ested and  urgent  inquiries,  with  much  vividness  of  de- 
tail and  with  a  pleasure  of  a  peculiar  character,  as  if  he 
had  been  relating  some  successful  and  felicitous  action 
of  another  person.  Then,  as  he  continued  his  narrative, 
he  said:  "  Mr.  Stuart,  when  he  published  his  volume, 
announced  that  he  was  expecting  to  prepare  editions  of 
the  writings  of  other  Latin  and  Greek  authors,  and  that 
the  next  volume  would  be  one  of  Plato's  works."  A  few 
133 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

weeks  after  the  review  appeared,  however,  a  young  grad- 
uate of  Yale,  who  had  been  a  student  at  Andover,  came 
back  to  New  Haven  to  enter  upon  a  tutorship,  and  in 
conversation,  one  day,  he  said  to  Professor  Kingsley  that 
Professor  Stuart  was  thinking  of  bringing  out  his  volume 
of  Plato  soon,  but  would  like  to  know  whether,  in  case 
of  its  publication,  Professor  Kingsley  would  review  it. 
The  Professor  replied — and,  as  he  told  me  of  his  reply, 
his  face  lighted  up  and  his  eye  sparkled — "  I  do  not 
know  whether  I  shall  review  the  book  or  not ;  but  this  I 
will  say:  Mr.  Woolsey  and  I  have  abundant  means 
now,  in  the  College  Library,  for  the  study  of  Plato ;  and 
if  the  book  appears,  it  will  be  noticed.  Yes,  I  may  not 
review  it,  but  the  book  will  be  noticed,  and  we  shall 
endeavor  to  have  the  question  settled  between  the  author 
and  ourselves,  as  to  which  of  us  can  decline  mowza  the 
best."  Then  he  added :  "  The  book  never  appeared;  " 
— and  the  story  was  completed. 

I  doubt  whether  the  two  men  had  any  unkindly  feel- 
ing towards  each  other.  I  am  sure  that  they  respected 
each  other  highly,  and  justly  estimated  each  other's 
powers.  But  the  one  was  a  man  of  eagerness,  and  was 
ever  forthputting  by  reason  of  his  rushing  enthusiasm; 
while  the  other  was  a  quiet  scholar,  keen-sighted,  thor- 
ough, accurate,  earnest  for  the  exactness  of  knowledge, 
and  a  layer  of  foundations  for  the  soundest  learning. 

Professor  Thacher  once  told  me  a  little  story  of  the 
two  men,  which  he  had  heard  from  an  earlier  time,  and 
which  sets  forth  something  of  the  contrast  between  them. 
On  a  certain  occasion,  when  they  were,  both  of  them, 
still  in  the  tutorial  office,  they  were  in  attendance  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Faculty.  The  meeting  was  prolonged 
much  beyond  their  anticipation,  and,  as  the  afternoon 
recitation  hour  was  drawing  very  near,  Mr.  Stuart 
turned  to  Mr.  Kingsley,  and  said,  "  I  had  no  idea  of 
being  detained  here  so  long,  and  I  am  much  disturbed 
134 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

as  I  have  had  no  time  for  my  preparation  for  the  lesson 
which  I  am  to  hear  recited  at  five  o'clock."  "  Oh," 
said  Mr.  Kingsley,  "  do  not  trouble  yourself.  You  can 
go  into  your  recitation  room  and  give  your  class  a  lec- 
ture; they  will  all  be  delighted  with  what  you  say  to 
them."  Mr.  Stuart  followed  his  suggestion.  He  began 
his  exercise  by  calling  upon  one  of  the  students  to  trans- 
late a  brief  passage  from  the  book  which  they  were  read- 
ing. In  the  first  line  of  the  passage,  the  student  came 
upon  the  word  Zeus.  "Who  was  Zeus?"  asked  Mr. 
Stuart.  The  student,  as  it  happened,  did  not  answer  the 
question  in  a  way  which  indicated  the  most  complete 
knowledge,  and  Mr.  Stuart  thereupon  proceeded  to  fill 
the  hour  with  a  discourse  concerning  Zeus,  which  was 
received  with  much  enthusiasm.  Mr.  Kingsley,  of 
course,  went  to  his  own  exercise  with  the  preparation 
fully  completed  beforehand,  and  gave  his  teaching  as 
methodically  and  accurately  as  was  his  custom.  Which 
of  the  two  men  was  the  more  helpful  to  his  pupils  on 
that  afternoon?  We  may  not  affirm  with  absolute  con- 
fidence. Enough  it  is  to  say,  that  accuracy  and  enthusi- 
asm are  alike  important,  if  the  student  is  to  become 
the  true  scholar,  and  that  the  teachers  who  lead  him  to 
the  attainment  of  each  of  the  two  essential  things  unite 
in  contributing  to  his  highest  happiness  and  success. 

That  the  feeling  between  the  two  eminent  professors 
was  not  an  unkindly  one — that  there  was  a  certain  play- 
fulness in  Professor  Kingsley's  wit — I  think  may  be 
indicated  by  his  reply  to  Professor  Stuart  with  reference 
to  an  honorary  degree  which  the  latter  had  received. 
Mr.  Stuart  was  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first,  of 
the  distinguished  theological  men  in  our  country  who 
declined  to  accept  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity,  conferred  upon  him  by  one  of  the  colleges. 
After  declining  it,  he  wrote  to  Professor  Kingsley,  who 
at  that  time  had  charge  of  the  publication  of  the  Yale 

135 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

Triennial  Catalogue,  asking  him  to  see  that  the  degree 
was  not  attached  to  his  name  in  that  document.  Mr. 
Kingsley  replied,  "  Of  course,  my  dear  friend,  it  will  be 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  fulfill  your  request,  for,  as 
you  know,  colleges  have  power  to  put  on  those  things, 
but  they  have  no  power  to  take  them  off."  This  amiable 
witticism  had  no  sting  of  unkindness  in  it,  and  must 
have  been  equally  enjoyed  on  both  sides.  But  how  sug- 
gestive it  is !  There  are  other  things  besides  honorary 
degrees  which  colleges  can  easily  put  on,  but  cannot 
easily  take  off.  And  so  it  is  in  other  spheres,  as  well. 
"  If  they  could  only  be  taken  off  " — do  we  not  sometimes 
say? 

Professor  Kingsley  was  a  genuine  scholar  in  a  some- 
what wide  range  of  learning.  He  was  not  only  a  suc- 
cessful teacher,  for  many  years,  of  three  different  lan- 
guages, as  has  been  already  intimated,  but  he  had,  for  a 
considerable  period,  the  instruction  in  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory under  his  charge,  and  for  a  more  limited  time, 
during  the  absence  of  the  professor  of  mathematics,  he 
rendered  valuable  service  in  carrying  forward  that  de- 
partment of  study.  In  his  private  studies,  he  was 
earnestly  devoted  to  historical  investigation,  and  with 
reference  to  historical  facts  few  men  of  his  time  had 
more  accurate  knowledge.  The  retentiveness  of  his 
memory  was  very  remarkable.  It  extended  even  to 
minutest  details;  so  that,  while  he  was  quick  to  discover 
the  errors  made  by  others,  it  was  almost  an  unknown 
experience  for  him  to  be  himself  found  in  a  mistake. 

His  accuracy  of  knowledge  and  his  richness  of  anec- 
dote and  story  respecting  men  and  things  made  him 
unusually  interesting  in  conversation.  He  was  not  a 
talker,  nor  one  who  carried  on  a  monologue,  expecting 
others  to  listen  in  silence,  or  perhaps  admiration.  On 
the  contrary,  he  was  retiring,  or  even  seemingly  diffident, 
and  was  quite  as  ready  to  listen  as  to  speak.  But  when 
136 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

he  was  led  to  speak,  those  who  heard  him  were  always 
charmed  and  instructed  by  what  he  said,  for  his  words 
were  full  of  intelligence  and,  also,  of  a  peculiar  liveliness 
and  humor.  In  a  commemorative  paper,  Professor 
Thacher,  referring  to  his  conversational  power,  calls 
attention  to  a  special  characteristic,  and  says :  "  He  had 
something  of  a  naturalist's  interest  in  the  human  species, 
only  his  interest  was  higher  and  more  worthy,  by  as 
much  as  man  is  higher  and  more  worthy  than  the 
lower  animals.  Every  fact,  therefore,  which  came  to 
his  knowledge  respecting  an  individual  whose  existence 
and  character  had  for  any  reason  impressed  itself  on  his 
memory,  was  likely  to  take  its  place  in  its  right  connec- 
tion in  his  mind,  and  have  its  effect  in  making  more  com- 
plete his  conception  of  the  individual  whom  it  concerned. 
Thus  there  were  multitudes  of  men  to  whose  history  he 
had  given  a  completeness  and  individuality  by  his  almost 
unconscious  habit  of  grouping  in  their  natural  connec- 
tion the  scattered  facts  of  personal  history,  which  were 
accidentally  brought  to  his  knowledge.  This  tendency 
gave  to  the  people  of  his  mind  a  personality  which 
heightened  very  much  his  own  interest  in  them,  and  the 
effect  of  his  conversation  respecting  them  was,  at  times, 
quite  similar  to  that  of  an  introduction  to  a  living  per- 
son." This  is  a  striking  testimony  from  a  personal 
friend,  and  a  testimony  to  a  remarkable  gift  which  must, 
in  its  revelation  of  itself,  have  awakened  an  especial  in- 
terest in  the  minds  of  all  who  enjoyed  the  privilege  of 
witnessing  it. 

The  service  which  Mr.  Kingsley  rendered  to  the  Col- 
lege was  fully  equal  to  that  of  either  of  his  two  col- 
leagues, Professor  Silliman  and  President  Day,  who 
were  so  long  associated  with  him.  It  was,  however,  a 
different  service,  at  least  in  a  considerable  measure,  from 
that  which  made  them  so  valuable  to  the  institution. 
Professor  Kingsley  was  more  distinctly,  and  in  the  strict 

137 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

sense  of  the  word,  a  scholar — more  exclusively  so — than 
either  of  them,  and  his  special  work  and  its  results  were 
seen  within  the  sphere  of  scholarship.  He  did  for  his 
time  what  Dr.  Woolsey  afterwards  did  for  his,  and 
we  may  not  doubt — so  closely  related  in  their  studies 
of  the  classics  were  the  two — that  the  elder  professor 
gave  much  of  his  own  thought  and  inspiration  to  his 
younger  associate.  But  Mr.  Kingsley's  era  was  one  of 
beginnings  and  of  limited  possibilities,  as  compared  with 
Mr.  Woolsey's,  and  of  course  the  measure  of  results  was 
very  different.  The  advance,  however,  in  the  study  of 
the  ancient  languages  and  in  the  methods  and  means  of 
study,  between  the  time  of  Mr.  Kingsley's  entrance  upon 
his  professorship  and  the  beginning  of  my  own  college 
days,  was  quite  remarkable.  It  was  such,  indeed,  as  to 
make  classical  education  a  different  thing  from  what  it 
had  been  at  the  opening  of  the  century.  This  advance 
in  our  own  institution  was  due,  in  largest  measure,  to  the 
influence  and  efforts  of  Professor  Kingsley.  Other  in- 
stitutions also  were  benefited,  and  excited  to  new  life, 
by  reason  of  his  example  and  what  he  accomplished. 

The  vision  of  him  which  lingers  in  my  mind  is  a  pleas- 
ant one.  As  he  walked  through  the  streets  on  a  winter's 
day,  he  always  gathered  his  long  cloak  (the  wonted 
outer  garment  of  the  time)  tightly  about  his  ankles — 
so  tightly  that  it  seemed  as  if  it  might  be  difficult  for 
him  to  move  forward.  His  closely-shaven  face  and  his 
eye  sparkling  with  intelligence  and  humor  showed  them- 
selves above  his  heavy  cape  and  collar,  as  if  he  were 
peering  out  of  a  narrow  window.  In  general,  he  carried 
an  umbrella  in  his  hand,  even  in  fair  weather,  and 
he  used  to  say  that  anybody  could  take  an  umbrella 
with  him  when  it  rained,  but  it  needed  a  wise  man  to 
take  one  when  the  sun  was  shining.  He  walked  rapidly, 
notwithstanding  his  cloak,  and  he  looked  outward  and 
inward  happily  whithersoever  he  went.  We  college 
138 


MEMORIES    OF    YALE    LIFE    AND    MEN 

boys,  as  we  spoke  of  him  and  Professor  Silliman,  in  our 
daily  conversation  with  one  another,  were  wont  to  give 
them  the  title  of  "  Uncle  " — Uncle  Jimmy  and  Uncle 
Ben — and  we  honored  and  esteemed  them  both.  They 
were  marked  characters  in  the  College  history. 


139 


IX 

The  Old  Faculty — Professors  Olmsted  and  Lamed 

PROFESSOR  Olmsted,   who  occupied,   in  the   Fac- 
ulty meetings,  the  chair  next  to  Professor  Silli- 
man  on  his  left,  was  only  twelve  years  younger 
than  his  colleague.    Owing  to  the  less  favorable  circum- 
stances of  his  early  life,  however,  he  entered  college 
at  a  later  age,  and  in  the  dates  of  their  graduation 
the  two  were  separated  by  an  interval  of  seventeen  years. 
In  his  undergraduate  career,  accordingly,  he  was  not 
only  a  student  under  the  instruction  of  President  Dwight 
as  his  elder  associate  had  been,  but  also  of  this  associate 
himself  and  of  the  other  two   gentlemen  whom   Dr. 
Dwight  had  selected  as  his  helpers  and  as  permanent 
professors.    He  was  a  pupil  while  these  gentlemen  were 
teachers,  and  thus  seemed,  no  doubt,  to  himself  as  well 
as  to  them,  according  to  the  college  standard  of  meas- 
urement, a  man  of  a  younger  generation.     Even  more 
truly  with  respect  to  his  professorial  office  he  must  have 
regarded  himself  as  pertaining  to  a  later  time,  for  a 
period  of  eight  years  after  the  date  of  Dr.  Day's  acces- 
sion to  the  Presidency  had  elapsed  before  he  received 
his  appointment  from  the   Corporation.        Moreover, 
within  this  period,  the  chair  of  mathematics  and  natural 
philosophy,  to  which  he  was  called,  had  been  filled  by 
two  gentlemen  in  succession — a  fact  which,  in  itself,  was 
calculated  to  impress  his  mind,  and  the  minds  of  others, 
with  the  difference  between  his  college  age  and  that  of 
his  older  colleagues.     The  eight  years  had  been  spent 
by  him  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina.     In  that 
140 


PROFESSOR   DENISON   OLMSTED 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

institution  he  had  held  the  professorship  of  chemistry, 
and  in  addition  to  his  duties  in  this  department  of  study 
he  had  given  instruction  in  mineralogy  and  geology. 
When  he  returned  to  Yale  he  was  summoned,  according- 
ly, to  an  untried  work,  upon  which  he  was  to  enter  at 
the  age  of  thirty-four.  All  things  thus  combined,  as  it 
would  appear,  to  make  him  feel  that  he  was,  indeed,  a 
new  man  among  those  who  had  begun  their  career  in  an 
earlier  era  and  were  now  in  advancing  years. 

He  gave  himself  immediately  on  his  arrival  in  New 
Haven,  in  1825,  to  the  studies  which  were  assigned  to 
him.  Although  in  the  sphere  of  mathematics  he  was 
not  possessed  of  natural  gifts  and  genius  such  as  belonged 
to  his  college  classmate,  Alexander  Metcalf  Fisher,  who 
had  preceded  him  in  his  official  position,  and  whose  early 
death  was  justly  regarded  as  a  great  loss  to  science,  he 
soon  proved  by  his  attainments  and  success  his  worthiness 
to  hold  a  permanent  place  in  the  board  of  teachers.  In 
the  year  1836,  the  department  of  mathematics  was  set 
apart  for  a  special  professorship,  to  which  a  young  grad- 
uate of  six  years  earlier,  Mr.  Anthony  D.  Stanley,  was 
called.  From  this  time  onward  Mr.  Olmsted's  chair 
was  that  of  natural  philosophy  and  astronomy.  This 
change  or  limitation  of  his  work  was,  no  doubt,  most 
satisfactory  to  him. 

In  accordance  with  the  arrangement  of  the  curriculum 
at  the  time,  the  studies  in  his  department  were  assigned 
especially  to  the  Junior  year.  In  that  year  he  came,  as 
I  may  say,  into  a  twofold  connection  with  each  successive 
class — namely,  through  his  books  and  as  a  lecturer. 
His  text-book,  Olmsted's  Natural  Philosophy,  was  made 
one  of  the  principal  studies  of  the  first  two  terms  of 
the  year.  That  relating  to  Astronomy  held  a  similar 
place  in  the  third  term.  The  teaching  of  the  former 
was  placed  in  the  charge  of  one  of  the  tutors.  It  was 
mainly  limited  to  the  hearing  of  recitations.  That 
141 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     .LIFE     AND     MEN 

which  pertained  to  the  latter  subject  he  reserved  for 
himself,  and  the  recitation  work  was  supplemented  by 
lectures. 

It  may  well  be  borne  in  mind,  as  we  recall  the  studies 
and  instruction  of  those  days,  that  it  was,  in  special 
aspects  of  the  matter,  a  much  earlier  era  than  the  present 
— an  era  in  educational  means  and  facilities,  in  our 
country,  much  nearer  to  the  beginnings.  In  the  sphere 
of  studies  such  as  those  to  which  Professor  Olmsted's 
attention  was  devoted,  there  was,  when  he  entered  upon 
his  duties  at  Yale,  an  absolute  want  of  suitable  text- 
books. If  therefore  he  would  accomplish  his  purpose, 
as  an  instructor,  it  became  a  necessity  that  he  should 
himself  prepare  such  as  would  be  more  adequate  and 
satisfactory.  This  he  did,  and  with  benefit  to  his 
students.  But  his  works  of  this  order  are  to  be  judged 
by  the  standard  of  the  time  when  they  were  written. 
The  one  on  Natural  Philosophy,  in  particular,  was  char- 
acterized very  markedly  by  the  style  of  the  lecturer,  even 
that  of  the  lecturer  addressing  popular  audiences.  It 
seems,  indeed,  to  have  been  modeled,  in  some  degree,  on 
books  containing  such  lectures  which  had,  not  long  pre- 
viously, been  published  in  England.  I  thought,  when 
as  a  teacher  I  used  the  book,  that  it  was  not  as  fully 
adapted  to  recitation  purposes  as  it  might  have  been, 
and  that  too  large  a  portion  of  the  year  was  assigned 
to  the  study  of  it.  But  in  a  conversation  which  I  had 
with  the  Professor  on  the  subject,  I  found  that  his  view 
was  diametrically  opposite  to  my  own.  As  I  recall  and 
mention  this  fact,  it  becomes  me  to  say  that  he  was,  if 
I  may  use  the  term,  a  natural  philosopher,  while  I  was 
not. 

As  a  lecturer,  whether  on  Experimental  Philosophy 

or  Astronomy,  Professor  Olmsted  was  very  successful 

and  instructive,  though  he  did  not  have  the  peculiar 

attractiveness  and  inspiring  power  which  were  charac- 

142 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

teristic  of  the  elder  Professor  Silliman.  He  was  careful 
and  thorough  in  his  preparation  for  his  lectures,  always 
ready  and  desirous  to  bring  before  his  pupils  what  was 
new,  and,  at  the  same  time,  interesting  and  useful.  In 
his  manner  he  was  dignified,  and  in  his  personal  presence 
he  had  the  appearance  of  a  man  of  ability  and  a  scholarly 
gentleman.  With  respect  to  style,  he  was  marked  by 
clearness  and  force,  but  with  a  slightly  excessive  tendency 
towards  the  rhetorical.  The  students  of  successive 
classes — with  the  characteristic  impulse  of  all  college 
boys  to  amuse  themselves  by  noticing  the  peculiarities 
of  every  individual  teacher — were  wont  to  make  merry 
in  a  kindly  way,  in  their  talk  together,  about  his  some- 
what ornate  and  elevated  modes  of  expression.  Espe- 
cially was  this  the  case,  as  they  came,  in  their  study  of  his 
text-book  on  Natural  Philosophy,  to  a  passage,  quite 
famous  in  the  undergraduate  community  of  the  time,  in 
which  a  description  was  given  of  a  stove  invented  by 
the  author  and  very  widely  used.  This  passage,  which 
was  in  its  style  like  the  rest  of  the  work  as  already 
described,  was  carefully  learned,  word  for  word,  by 
pupils  who  were  careless  on  other  occasions,  in  the  hope 
that  they  might  have  the  pleasure  of  reciting  it  with 
due  emphasis  in  the  presence  of  their  classmates,  and 
thus  of  putting  the  solemn  dignity  of  the  one  who 
chanced  to  be  their  instructor  to  the  severest  test.  But  it 
may  fitly  be  remembered,  on  the  Professor's  behalf,  that 
the  young  students  themselves,  in  their  admiration  of 
the  oratory  of  the  era,  often  sought  after  a  somewhat 
similar  style  when  they  turned  their  efforts  towards 
writing  or  speaking. 

In  addition  to  his  lectures  on  Natural  Philosophy 
and  Astronomy,  which  were  delivered  to  the  students 
in  their  Junior  year,  he  gave  a  valuable  course  annually 
to  the  Senior  class  on  the  subject  of  Meteorology.  This 
course  had  a  special  interest  by  reason  of  his  peculiar 
143 


MEMORIES     OP     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

enthusiasm  as  connected  with  that  science,  and  also  be- 
cause of  his  careful  observation  of  the  remarkable 
meteoric  showers  of  1833,  and  of  his  theory  respecting 
the  phenomena  of  such  showers.  The  classes  saw  that 
he  was  a  faithful  and  earnest  investigator  and  a  genuine 
devotee  of  science  in  each  department  in  which  it  opened 
itself  to  him.  As  a  consequence  they  attended  his  ex- 
ercises with  readiness,  and  those  among  their  member- 
ship whose  minds  were  most  adapted  to  scientific  studies 
derived  no  little  advantage  from  his  instruction. 

According  to  the  best  of  testimony,  Professor  Olmsted 
was  active  and  influential  during  the  period  between 
1825  and  1840  in  advancing  the  scholarship  of  the 
College,  and  especially  in  raising  the  standard  and  im- 
proving the  method  of  examinations.  During  my  own 
undergraduate  life  and  in  the  years  which  immediately 
followed,  I  think  he  accomplished  little  in  this  regard — 
partly,  no  doubt,  because  of  the  greater  activity  of  others 
with  reference  to  these  matters,  but  partly,  perhaps, 
because  of  some  personal  changes  in  himself.  He  did 
not  lose  his  interest  in  devising  ways  of  making  his 
examinations  more  successful  for  the  attainment  of  the 
desired  results.  He  was  ever  watchful  and  thoughtful 
to  this  end.  But,  either  because  he  became  more  dis- 
posed to  trust  the  honor  of  the  average  student,  as  he 
grew  older,  or  because  he  did  not  understand  all  the 
possibilities  or  dangers  connected  with  the  newly  intro- 
duced system  of  written  examinations — or  for  some 
other  reason — his  best  formed  plans,  not  unfrequently, 
proved  to  be  failures.  In  the  latter  part  of  my  official 
term  as  tutor  I  occupied  a  college  room  which  was  near 
his  own,  and  I  well  remember  the  confidence  and  satis- 
faction with  which  he  came  to  me,  again  and  again, 
assuring  me  that  he  had  in  mind  a  new  scheme  which 
he  thought  would  be  eminently  wise  and  useful.  He 
never  informed  me  what  it  was.  But,  within  a  few 
144 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

weeks  after  it  had  been  tested,  he  was  sure  to  visit  me 
again,  and  to  say  that  he  had  found  reason  to  believe 
that  the  scheme  had  not  been  attended  with  the  success 
for  which  he  had  hoped.  Yet  he  never  despaired  of  the 
coming  time,  and  he  kept  his  mind  always  awake  for 
what  might  seem  better  things,  as  well  as  for  what 
should  prove  advantageous  for  his  department  of  study. 
As  a  scholarly  writer,  he  was  active  beyond  many  of 
his  contemporaries — his  articles  in  the  Quarterlies  of 
the  day,  as  well  as  his  more  extended  works,  being  of 
goodly  number  and  of  wide  influence.  Many  of  them 
exhibited  less  of  the  rhetorical  style  that  marked,  as  has 
been  already  stated,  his  book  on  Natural  Philosophy, 
and  was  characteristic  of  his  lectures  and  public  ad- 
dresses. Indeed,  the  rhetorical  element  never  interfered 
with  his  clearness  of  statement,  and  he  certainly  did  not 
have  the  redundancy  or  exuberance  of  language  which 
was  so  often  noticeable  in  the  elder  Silliman's  discourse. 
I  think  he  was  even  impatient,  at  times,  when  more  was 
said  than  seemed  necessary  for  the  satisfactory  pre- 
sentation of  the  subject  in  discussion.  I  recall  a  little 
instance  of  such  impatience,  which  will  serve  as  an  illus- 
tration. In  one  of  the  later  years  of  my  tutorship,  a 
movement  was  made  by  the  Faculty  to  change  "the  sys- 
tem of  excuses,"  as  it  was  called — so  that  in  place  of  the 
old  arrangement,  according  to  which  the  students  pre- 
sented their  excuses  for  absences  from  college  exercises, 
or  for  other  delinquencies,  to  their  instructors  orally,  all 
such  communications  were  thereafter  to  be  made  in  writ- 
ing. This  appeared  from  the  standpoint  of  the  time  to 
be  a  much  greater  and  more  serious  change  than  would 
now,  after  so  many  years  of  experience  with  the  new 
order  of  things,  seem  possible.  The  matter  was,  after 
discussion,  placed  in  charge  of  a  committee  for  further 
careful  consideration,  and  for  the  perfecting  of  a  plan. 
When  the  chairman  of  this  committee,  who  was  perhaps 

MS 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  most  influential  of  the  younger  professors  and  the 
one  most  familiar  with  the  disciplinary  matters  of  the 
College,  presented  their  report,  he  submitted  a  form  of 
excuse-paper  which  should  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
students — a  paper  having  a  statement  of  the  character 
and  manner  of  the  excuse  to  be  offered.  This  intro- 
ductory statement,  to  be  printed  on  each  paper,  was  quite 
elaborate  and  extended,  and  was  read  to  the  Faculty  by 
the  Professor.  When  the  reading  was  finished,  Profes- 
sor Olmsted  commented  upon  it,  and  said,  "It  seems  to 
me  to  be  altogether  too  long."  The  chairman  of  the 
committee  replied:  "We  gave  special  attention  to  the 
matter  of  brevity  and  conciseness,  and  I  do  not  see  how 
it  would  be  possible  to  make  it  any  shorter  than  it  is." 
"Will  you  be  so  kind  as  to  read  it  again?"  said  Mr. 
Olmsted.  The  chairman  of  the  committee  proceeded  to 
do  so.  He  read  the  first  sentence,  which  was  somewhat 
as  follows: — "In  writing  his  excuse,  the  student  should 
make  his  statement  as  to  the  time  and  cause  of  his  ab- 
sence, or  as  to  his  other  delinquency,  with  exactness, 
clearness,  and  brevity."  Professor  Olmsted  immediately 
interrupted  the  reading,  with  the  remark:  "If  you  had 
stopped  there,  you  would  have  said  all  that  was  neces- 
sary." The  Professor's  rhetorical  style  was  a  matter 
of  words  of  an  ornate  character  and  stately  progress, 
rather  than  of  long-extended  sentences  or  excess  of  ex- 
pression. It  was  said  of  him  by  a  critic  of  higher 
quality  and  attainments  than  I  can  claim  to  be,  that  he 
had  no  poetry  in  his  nature.  For  myself,  I  should  be 
disposed  rather  to  say,  that  there  was  a  certain  poetic 
element,  or  an  element  kindred  to  the  poetry  of  the  more 
ponderous  and  weighty  order  of  the  later  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  which  affected  his  words  rather  than 
his  thoughts,  and  that  thus  his  style,  in  its  two  charac- 
teristics taken  together,  had  its  explanation. 

There  was  somewhat  of  a  similar  element — of  an 
146 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

ornate  or  elevated  character,  if  I  may  so  describe  it — in 
the  worthy  Professor's  bearing  and  general  appearance. 
He  was  more  nicely  careful  in  his  dress,  and  more 
punctilious  in  his  manner,  than  most  of  his  colleagues, 
and  always  had  in  consequence,  to  the  student  mind,  a 
certain  conscious  professorial  aspect.  He  had  also  an 
apparently  upward  look  in  the  eyes  towards  the  fore- 
head, from  which  the  hair  was  always  brushed  upward, 
or  naturally  grew  thus, — a  look  that  added  to  the  im- 
pression mentioned.  There  was,  so  far,  a  measure  of 
the  dignity  of  the  older  generation  which  attracted  atten- 
tion and,  oftentimes,  excited  comment  among  the  young 
men  of  the  later  period,  when  the  former  things  were 
already  passing  away.  As  I  recall  how  his  sense  of  pro- 
priety was  shocked,  when  some  of  us  who  were  tutors 
at  the  time  followed  the  passing  fashion  of  those  years 
in  the  wearing  of  shawls,  instead  of  cloaks  or  overcoats, 
I  can  easily  picture  to  myself  the  astonishment  and  hor- 
ror which  would  have  filled  his  mind,  if  he  could  have 
foreseen  the  day  when  even  elderly  professors  and  men 
eminent  in  the  State  should  ride  on  bicycles,  or  array 
themselves  in  a  manner  adapted  to  the  playing  of  golf. 
But,  though  I  have  to  acknowledge  that  I  was  myself, 
for  a  season,  a  voluntary  victim  to  the  shawl  fashion, 
and  that  the  Professor  indulged  himself,  in  consequence, 
in  unfavorable  comments,  I  confess  that  I  have  a  yet 
lingering  respect  for  the  good  man's  views  and  example, 
and  a  feeling  from  which  I  am  unable  to  free  myself, 
that  men  of  venerable  years  and  official  position  may 
fitly  have  a  dignity  of  bearing  and  a  style  of  dress  in 
accordance  therewith.  The  gentleman  of  the  old  school 
is  altogether  of  the  past  now,  and  of  the  increasingly 
distant  past.  But  it  will  do  us  of  the  present  no  harm 
to  remember  his  excellences  and  to  let  the  influence  of 
his  example  work  upon  us  as  far  as  it  may.  There  is 
147 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

little  danger  that  we  shall  carry  our  imitation  of  him  too 
far. 

For  a  considerable  period  in  his  boyhood  Professor 
Olmsted  stood  in  close  relations  to  the  family  of  the 
Hon.  John  Treadwell,  of  Farmington,  Connecticut,  and 
during  a  part  of  this  time  he  lived  in  their  home.  Mr. 
Treadwell  held  a  very  prominent  position  in  the  com- 
munity, and  for  a  term  of  years  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century  he  filled  the  office  of  Lieutenant  Governor,  and 
that  of  Governor  of  the  State.  His  characteristics  both 
of  mind  and  manner  were  those  of  what  we  may  call  the 
old  re'gime.  Dignity  and  formality  marked  all  his  in- 
tercourse with  others,  even  with  his  familiar  friends  and 
the  members  of  his  family.  I  remember  hearing  Mr. 
Olmsted,  when  speaking  of  him,  mention  more  than  once 
the  fact,  that — in  accordance  with  the  order  of  the  house- 
hold— whenever  he  entered  the  room  where  his  children 
were,  they  all  rose  respectfully  and  remained  standing 
until  he  had  taken  his  seat.  The  influence  of  such  a 
man  and  of  rules  like  these  must  have  had  a  formative 
force  for  a  boy  who  was  at  the  most  impressible  age,  and 
I  have  the  thought  that  the  Professor's  demeanor  in  this 
regard  may  have  been  in  no  small  measure  due  to  this 
experience  of  his  early  life.  There  was,  however,  in 
his  nature  an  element  which  rendered  him  especially 
susceptible  to  such  influence,  and  which  would,  no  doubt, 
have  made  itself  manifest  in  his  bearing,  as  well  as  in 
his  thoughts,  whatever  might  have  been  the  surroundings 
of  his  youth. 

The  allusion  thus  made  to  Governor  Treadwell  re- 
minds me  of  the  partisan  spirit  of  the  early  days  of  the 
century  and  recalls  a  word  of  Mr.  Olmsted  in  connection 
with  it.  The  Governor  was  a  stanch  Federalist,  and  to 
the  Federalists  of  New  England  the  Democrats  of  the 
time  were  offensive  in  a  far  higher  degree  than  we  of 
the  modern  era  find  it  easy  to  realize.  The  oppositions 
148 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

among  us  are  of  a  milder  order  than  they,  were  in  the 
days  of  the  Fathers.  Mr.  Olmsted  said  that,  when  he 
was  a  young  boy  in  the  Governor's  house,  he  received 
such  an  impression  from  the  conversation  of  the  men 
of  the  period  which  he  there  overheard,  that  he  some- 
times found  himself  afraid  to  go  out  into  the  fields  after 
dark,  if  by  chance  he  was  called  to  do  so,  because  of  the 
thought  that  he  might  meet  a  Democrat.  Happily  we 
New  Englanders  have  freed  ourselves  from  the  old-time 
apprehensions,  and  men  of  the  party  opposed  to  our  own, 
whichever  it  may  be,  have  no  terrors  for  the  youngest 
of  us,  even  in  the  darker  hours  of  the  day. 

But  to  turn  again  to  the  Professor  himself — the  cor- 
diality of  his  gentlemanly  nature,  uniting  itself  with  his 
affectionate  interest  in  the  students,  led  him  to  offer  them 
in  a  generous  way  the  privilege  of  his  friendly  acquaint- 
anceship. He  received  them  in  his  college  room  with 
readiness,  whether  for  conversation  or  for  counsel  and 
helpful  advice.  He  also  offered  them  the  hospitality 
of  his  home,  and  as  they  accepted  it,  he  gave  them  a 
sincere  welcome.  The  welcome,  indeed,  was  that  of 
dignified  age  in  its  meeting  with  cultured  youth,  but  it 
had  in  it  the  kindliness  of  the  older  towards  the  younger 
in  the  scholarly  brotherhood.  There  was  no  formality 
in  the  outward  manner  which  bore  testimony  of  the 
absence  of  feeling  in  the  spirit  within.  There  was  only 
what  seemed  to  his  thought  the  appropriate  mingling  of 
the  paternal  with  the  fraternal. 

He  was,  moreover,  ever  thoughtful  and  earnest  in 
his  work  for  the  upbuilding  of  personal  character  in  the 
student  community.  This  work  he  regarded  as  a  most 
important  part  of  the  service  which  he  was  called  to 
render  to  the  institution  and  its  membership.  He  had 
a  deep-seated  conviction  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
College  to  make  men,  as  well  as  scholars — to  educate 
its  pupils  not  only  intellectually,  but  also  morally  and 
149 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

spiritually.  As  the  result  of  this  conviction,  he  gave 
himself,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  opportunities, 
to  the  fulfillment  of  the  duty;  and  by  his  example  and 
his  friendly  suggestions  and  teachings,  he  commended 
the  true  life  to  all  who  came  under  his  influence. 

In  the  later  part  of  his  career,  he  was  called  to  the 
endurance  of  unusual  sorrows  and  afflictions  through 
the  loss  of  four  sons,  young  men  of  much  ability  and 
promise,  who  died  in  their  early  manhood  not  long  after 
their  college  graduation.  But  notwithstanding  his 
burden  of  grief  he  moved  on  in  his  course  in  the  manliest 
and  most  courageous  way,  being  even  to  the  end  un- 
wearied in  his  labors  and  conscientiously  devoted  to  the 
well-being  of  those  who  were  about  him.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1859  he  died,  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight.  His 
elder  colleagues,  Silliman  and  Day,  survived  him — the 
former  for  more  than  five,  and  the  latter  for  eight 
years. 

Toward  myself  personally  Mr.  Olmsted  had  a 
friendly  feeling  which  I  remember  with  pleasure  and 
gratitude.  He  visited  me  not  unfrequently  at  my  room, 
when"  our  apartments  were  near  each  other  in  North 
College,  and  talked  with  me  freely,  or  even  confiden- 
tially, notwithstanding  our  separation  in  age.  He  had, 
I  think,  a  kind  of  family  regard  for  me,  which  came 
from  the  associations  of  former  years,  when  he  knew  and 
honored  my  grandfather  as  his  instructor,  and  was  united 
in  the  bonds  of  a  college  friendship  with  one  of  my 
uncles,  who  was  his  classmate.  He  was,  certainly,  al- 
ways most  gracious  and  considerate  in  all  his  intercourse 
and  dealings  with  me.  Almost  on  the  very  day  of  my 
return  from  my  studies  in  Europe,  he  called  upon  me, 
and  said  that  he  had  received  a  letter  requesting  him 
to  suggest  the  name  of  a  desirable  candidate  for  a 
professorship  in  one  of  the  prominent  universities  of 
the  Northwest.  This  letter,  he  said,  he  had  kept  in  his 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

hands  for  a  time,  awaiting  my  arrival,  in  order  that  he 
might,  if  I  were  willing  to  accept  the  position,  give  me 
his  best  commendation  for  it.  My  desires  in  the  line 
of  college  life  were  limited  to  New  England,  and  the 
department  offered  in  the  Western  institution  was  not 
in  accordance  with  my  preference.  I  therefore  declined 
the  Professor's  proposal,  but  I  have  always  carried  in 
my  thought  the  recollection  of  his  friendly  offer  at  a 
critical  time  in  my  career,  and  I  am  glad  to  record  in 
these  pages  my  respect  for  him  as  a  man,  and  my  appre- 
ciation of  his  kind  regard. 

To  many  students  of  the  earlier  years,  as  I  cannot 
doubt,  he  was  a  more  efficient  and  helpful  friend  than  it 
was  possible  for  him  to  be  to  me.  Most  of  these,  like 
himself,  have  now  passed  beyond  the  limits  of  their 
earthly  career.  But  while  they  lived,  they  must  have 
kept  in  pleasant  memory  what  he  did  for  them,  and  the 
results  of  what  he  did  in  the  happy  experience  of  their 
subsequent  history.  Doubtless,  also,  there  are  some  still 
living  by  whom  his  personality,  like  that  of  his  associates 
in  the  old  Faculty,  is  held  in  fresh  recollection,  and  in 
whose  minds  the  vision  of  the  former  days  has  much  of 
its  distinctness  yet  remaining. 

The  place  next  to  that  of  Professor  Olmsted  in  the 
order  of  arrangement  was  held  by  Professor  Larned, 
who  succeeded  Dr.  Goodrich  in  the  chair  of  Rhetoric. 
He  received  his  appointment  in  1839 — the  year  in  which 
Dr.  Goodrich  left  the  College  Department  to  take  up 
his  work  in  the  Divinity  School.  He  was,  at  that  time, 
a  graduate  of  thirteen  years'  standing  and  a  man  of 
thirty-three  years  of  age.  His  original  purpose,  when 
an  undergraduate  student,  had  been  to  enter  the  legal 
profession,  but  near  the  end  of  his  tutorship  in  the 
College  the  influence  upon  his  mind  of  the  remarkable 
religious  revival  which  occurred  in  1831  led  him  to 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

change  his  plan  of  life  and  to  enter  upon  a  course  of 
study  in  preparation  for  the  work  of  the  Christian 
ministry.  Owing  to  an  enfeebled  condition  of  his 
health,  however,  he  was  obliged,  after  a  brief  term  of 
service,  to  give  up  his  pastoral  duties  to  which  he  had 
been  successively  called  in  two  different  places,  and  near 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1839  he  returned  to  New 
Haven,  for  what  he  supposed  would  be  a  temporary 
residence,  in  order  that  he  might  regain  his  strength  and 
vigor.  It  was  during  the  period  of  this  sojourn  that 
the  chair  of  Rhetoric  became  vacant,  and  a  new  occupant 
was  sought  for  by  the  College  Corporation.  That  body 
made  choice  of  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  but,  on  his  declining 
the  appointment,  the  attention  of  its  members,  as  well 
as  of  the  members  of  the  Faculty — according  to  the 
statements  which  I  heard,  a  few  years  afterwards,  from 
those  who  were  familiar  with  the  facts — was  specially 
called  to  Mr.  Larned  as  a  desirable  candidate  for  the 
position  by  the  elder  Professor  Silliman,  who  had  known 
him  with  more  than  usual  intimacy  and  had  a  high  esti- 
mate of  his  ability  and  worth.  The  offer  of  the  position 
was  made  and,  on  Mr.  Larned's  acceptance  of  it,  the 
title  of  the  professorship  was  changed  from  that  of 
"Rhetoric  and  Oratory"  to  that  of  "Rhetoric  and  Eng- 
lish Literature."  The  formal  recognition  of  English 
Literature  as  descriptive  of  the  chair  of  instruction  was 
thus  given  at  this  time,  though  of  course  Dr.  Goodrich 
had,  in  his  teaching,  turned  his  attention,  in  a  measure, 
to  this  subject  in  connection  with  Rhetoric. 

The  classes  of  my  undergraduate  period  met  Profes- 
sor Larned,  for  the  first  time,  at  the  opening  of  their 
Senior  year.  All  that  was  then  offered  in  the  line  of 
instruction  in  English  during  the  earlier  part  of  the 
College  course  was  under  the  charge  of  the  tutors,  and 
was  limited  to  more  or  less  regular  exercises  in  English 
composition,  and  occasional  private  criticisms  on  the 

152 


PROFESSOR    WILLIAM    A.    LARNED 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

part  of  these  younger  officers.  The  criticisms  dealt,  in 
general,  with  minor  points  only,  and  were  of  no  signifi- 
cant value  or  importance.  Even  with  reference  to  the 
matter  of  oratory,  the  student  was  largely  left  to  himself, 
and  he  gained  whatever  power  resulted  from  his  college 
education  mainly  from  his  personal  efforts  as  a  par- 
ticipator in  the  discussions  of  the  larger  debating  societies 
of  that  day.  The  modern  system  of  coaching  for  special 
debates  was  unknown  in  connection  with  those  societies 
— and  I  think,  happily  so,  as  the  students  in  such  an  age 
of  debating  as  that  was  could  be  safely  left  to  them- 
selves; and  they  derived  certain  advantages,  in  my 
judgment,  from  the  fact  that  the  responsibility  of  their 
progress  and  success  rested  upon  themselves  alone.  It 
may  be  remembered  that  it  was  not  an  era  of  inter- 
collegiate contests  and  recorded  victories. 

There  was  much  reading  of  English  literature  on  the 
part  of  many  in  the  undergraduate  classes  in  those  days 
— quite  as  much  as,  I  think,  and  probably  more  than 
there  is,  at  present,  apart  from  the  requirements  of  the 
regular  college  exercises.  But  such  reading  was  under- 
taken and  carried  forward  according  to  the  individual 
student's  impulses  and,  in  the  main,  without  any  guidance 
or  suggestion  from  any  of  his  teachers.  The  institution 
through  its  officers  or  its  organized  system  made,  as  I 
may  say,  almost  no  provision  for  this  department  of 
instruction,  except  within  the  sphere  of  rhetoric,  and 
even  within  that  sphere  the  teaching  was  scarcely  ade- 
quate to  the  demands  of  the  case. 

Professor  Larned  entered  upon  his  duties  at  the  be- 
ginning, and  continued  in  the  discharge  of  them  during 
all  the  earlier  portion, — not  to  say,  the  whole, — of  his 
official  career,  under  the  power  of  influences  which  were 
thus  almost  exclusively  rhetorical.  He  found  it  difficult 
also,  as  we  may  believe,  to  free,  himself  from  the  au- 
thoritative force  of  Professor  Goodrich's  methods  and 

153 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

personality — especially,  as  the  latter  continued,  until  the 
closing  years  of  his  life,  to  deliver  to  each  successive 
Senior  class  his  courses  of  lectures  on  the  British  Orators, 
which  were  regarded  as  very  instructive  and  interesting. 
When  we  met  Mr.  Larned  as  Seniors,  accordingly,  we 
found  no  very  marked  change  from  what  we  had  known 
in  the  previous  years.  We  hnd  a  new  instructor,  indeed, 
and  one  whose  assigned  duty  was  altogether  within  the 
English  department.  But  the  exercises  to  which  we 
were  called  in  the  first  term  had  relation,  as  already 
stated  on  an  earlier  page,  to  the  Oration  of  Demosthenes 
on  the  Crown,  and  in  the  remaining  part  of  the  year 
the  lectures  that  he  gave  us  on  literary  matters  were  few 
in  number.  I  have  reason  to  believe  that,  in  the  period 
which  followed  our  graduation,  he  accomplished  more 
for  his  classes  thnn  he  did  for  us,  because  of  his  more 
frequent  meeti'ngs  with  individual  students  for  confer- 
ence as  to  their  personal  work  in  his  department.  He  was 
thus  easily  enabled  to  give  them,  in  much  larger  measure, 
such  suggestions  and  criticisms  as  would  have  a  helpful 
influence  in  relation  to  their  own  writing  or  to  their 
study  of  the  best  authors.  But  while  he  was  a  faithful 
worker  in  the  studies  pertaining  to  his  chair,  his  effort 
and  thought  in  connection  with  his  teaching  were  always, 
as  it  seemed  to  me,  directed  towards  the  matter  of  style 
and  expression,  rather  than  to  the  survey  of  literature 
or  the  unfolding  of  its  richness  before  the  student's 
mind. 

His  associates  in  the  Faculty  who  knew  him  best,  and 
his  most  mature  and  thoughtful  pupils  who  were  able,  in 
some  measure,  to  form  a  true  judgment  respecting  his 
mental  gifts,  were  united  in  the  oninion  that  he  was  by 
nature  better  fitted  for  philosophical,  than  for  literary 
studies, — that  the  logical  element  was  strongest  in  him, 
and  that  his  special  tastes  and  impulses  moved  easily  in 
the  direction  of  metaphysics.  When  the  call  came  to 

-     154 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

him  to  turn  toward  literature,  therefore,  it  was  natural 
that  he  should  be  most  deeply  interested  in  the  logical 
and  the  constructive  parts  of  it.  He  guided  his  pupils 
safely  as  far  as  he  led  them  or  went  forward  with  them. 
But  in  comparison  with  the  best  and  most  inspiring 
teachers  of  the  present  day,  he  was  a  man  of  the  earlier 
generation  in  his  department.  The  age  to  which  he 
belonged  and  in  which  the  duties  of  his  office  were  ful- 
filled was,  certainly,  far  behind  that  in  which  we  are  now 
living. 

As  a  man  of  ability  and  character,  Professor  Larned 
was  of  the  old  New  England  type.  He  was  charac- 
terized in  his  mental  gifts  by  soundness  and  solidity, 
rather  than  by  the  brilliancy  of  genius.  With  earnest- 
ness of  purpose  and  unyielding  energy  he  devoted  his 
time  and  his  powers  to  his  work  in  the  intellectual  sphere. 
He  was  a  clear  and  intelligent  writer,  and  his  many 
articles,  as  a  contributor  to  the  pages  of  the  New  Eng- 
lander,  or  as  the  editor  of  that  Review  for  a  term  of 
years,  show  that  his  mind  was  interested  in  the  most 
important  questions  of  the  day,  as  well  as  in  matters  of 
literary  significance.  He  had  somewhat  of  the  distrust- 
fulness  of  himself  which  was  often  noticed  in  New  Eng- 
land people  in  those  days,  and  to  this  element  in  his 
nature  was  due,  perchance,  a  certain  hesitation  in  press- 
ing forward  to  the  accomplishment  of  new  plans  or  the 
carrying  out  of  new  ideas,  which  otherwise  he  would 
have  been  ready  to  bring  to  their  realization.  In  his 
relations  to  the  students  he  was  open-minded  and  con- 
siderate, but  like  the  other  officers  whose  work  was 
mainly  limited  to  the  instruction  of  the  Senior  class,  he 
had  comparatively  little  to  do  with  the  minor  and  gen- 
eral discipline  of  the  academic  community.  To  his 
colleagues  he  proved  himself  throughout  his  official 
career  to  be  a  true  friend.  Generous  in  his  sentiment 
and  feeling,  free  from  undue  self-assertion  or  jealousy, 

155 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

indisposed  to  entertain  suspicions  of  others'  motives, 
sincere  in  his  thoughts  and  honorable  in  his  actions,  he 
was  recognized  by  them  all  as  a  genuine  man,  worthy 
in  this  regard  of  membership  in  their  fraternity.  He 
enjoyed  greatly  the  privileges  of  the  academic  life.  The 
studies,  the  associations,  the  influences  of  the  College 
were  prized,  both  because  of  what  they  gave  to  himself 
and  of  what  they  enabled  him  to  give  to  those  who 
were  connected  with  him.  He  was  happier,  I  think, 
than  he  would  have  been  in  the  more  public  duties  of  a 
professional  career. 


156 


X. 

The  Old  Faculty— Professors  Porter,  Thacher,  Hadley 
and  Stanley. 

PROFESSORS  Porter,  Thacher,  and  Hadley,  who 
were  the  other  members  of  the  permanent  Fac- 
ulty of  the  time,  seemed  to  me,  as  I  entered 
upon  my  tutorship  and  passed  through  the  years  of  its 
continuance,  to  be  nearer  my  own  age  than  their  col- 
leagues already  mentioned.  Professor  Thacher,  of 
whom  I  have  written  somewhat  on  previous  pages  of 
this  volume,  was  only  fourteen  years,  and  Professor 
Hadley  only  seven  years,  in  advance  of  me ;  and  though 
Professor  Porter  was  but  five  years  younger  than  Pro- 
fessor Larned,  he  appeared — perhaps  because  his  official 
term  began  so  much  later,  and  even  within  the  time  of 
my  undergraduate  life,  or  possibly  by  reason  of  a  certain 
geniality  which  rendered  him  more  easily  accessible  to 
younger  men — to  be  much  less  removed  from  the  ex- 
periences and  sympathies  of  my  associates  and  myself. 
I  may  have  occasion  to  advert  hereafter  to  my  recollec- 
tions of  these  gentlemen  in  their  subsequent  career. 
What  I  say  at  this  point  of  my  story  will  have  reference 
to  what  they  were,  or  what  I  thought  them  to  be,  as  I 
knew  them  in  the  early  days  or  sat  with  them  in  the 
meetings  of  the  College  Faculty. 

Professor  Porter  was  elected  to  his  professorship  in 
the  summer  of  1846,  but  he  did  not  enter  upon  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duties  until  January,  1 847.  He  had  grad- 
uated in  1831;  had  filled  the  office  of  Tutor  in  the 

iS7 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

College  from  1833  to  1835;  had  studied  Theology  in 
the  Yale  Divinity  School ;  and  had  subsequently  held  the 
pastorates  of  two  churches  in  succession — one  in  New 
Milford,  Connecticut,  and  the  other  in  Springfield,  Mas- 
sachusetts. During  the  years  of  these  pastorates,  and 
even  in  the  period  of  his  preparatory  theological  studies, 
he  had  been  greatly  interested  in  the  discussions  and 
investigations  of  the  time  in  the  department  of  Mental 
and  Moral  Philosophy.  His  attainments  and  learning 
in  this  department  were  recognized  by  all  who  knew  him, 
and  I  have  the  impression  that  the  thought  of  the  Faculty 
and  the  Corporation  had,  for  some  years,  been  turned 
towards  him  as  a  desirable  occupant  of  the  chair  of 
Philosophy,  whenever  the  resources  of  the  institution 
should  render  the  establishment  of  such  a  chair  prac- 
ticable. The  time  of  the  realization  of  the  possibility 
drew  near  in  the  early  forties,  while  Mr.  Porter  was 
settled  in  Springfield,  and  it  arrived  just  as  Dr.  Day 
was  leaving  the  Presidential  office,  and  Dr.  Woolsey  was 
assuming  its  duties.  The  bequest  of  Mr.  Sheldon 
Clark,  already  alluded  to  on  an  earlier  page  in  connec- 
tion with  the  two  scholarships  bearing  his  name,  made 
provision  for  this  professorship.  The  amount  given  to 
the  College  had,  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the 
donor,  been  allowed  to  accumulate  for  a  period  of  years 
until,  in  1846,  it  reached  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand 
dollars  as  the  foundation  of  the  professorship.  On  the 
scale  of  salaries  paid  to  the  professors  at  that  time,  this 
sum  was  an  ample  endowment  for  the  new  chair.  The 
Corporation  and  Dr.  Woolsey  availed  themselves — I 
have  no  doubt,  with  much  satisfaction — of  the  oppor- 
tunity thus  afforded  them  for  securing  Mr.  Porter's 
services. 

There  was,  indeed,  an  especial  timeliness  in  the  matur- 
ing of  this  bequest  at  this  particular  moment,  for,  with 
the  change  of  the  Presidency,  a  new  arrangement  of 
158 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

studies  became  a  matter  of  importance,  and  almost,  as 
it  would  seem,  of  necessity.  The  instruction  of  the 
Senior  classes  in  Mental  and  Moral  Philosophy  under 
the  administration  of  Drs.  Dwight  and  Day,  and  in  the 
time  preceding  theirs,  had  heen  included  within  the 
duties  of  the  President  of  the  College.  But  the  depart- 
ments of  History  and  Political  Science  were  now  begin- 
ning to  make  greater  demands  upon  educators  and  to 
claim  for  themselves  a  place  of  prominence  in  our  higher 
institutions  of  learning.  The  taste  and  inclination  of 
Dr.  Woolsey's  mind  turned  towards  these  branches  of 
study,  rather  than  Philosophy,  and  the  general  desire 
of  his  associates  in  the  Faculty  and  Corporation  was 
in  harmony  with  his  own,  that  he  should  devote  himself 
to  them.  With  the  two  men,  the  President  and  the  new 
Professor,  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching  the  Seniors, 
it  was  felt  that  the  closing  year  of  the  undergraduate 
course  would  be  made  much  more  valuable  in  its  results, 
and  that  there  would  be  a  healthful  broadening  of  the 
education  that  was  offered. 

Professor  Porter's  entrance  upon  his  official  duties 
was  fortunate  both  in  respect  to  its  date  and  with  refer- 
ence to  all  the  circumstances  connected  with  it.  He  was 
at  that  time,  as  he  was  in  all  the  years  that  followed,  a 
man  of  active  and  alert  mind;  reaching  out  with  ever 
fresh  interest  towards  new  thought  and  knowledge,  and 
moving  eagerly  and  happily  through  a  wide  sphere  of 
truth.  The  field  pertaining  to  his  own  science  opened 
itself  for  his  efforts  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 
He  had  entire  charge  of  his  department  of  instruction. 
The  College  authorities  were  glad  to  give  him  all  schol- 
arly freedom  in  his  investigations,  and  complete  inde- 
pendence in  his  plans  and  methods  of  teaching.  From 
the  very  beginning  he  enjoyed  the  warm  friendship  of 
Dr.  Woolsey,  who  co-operated  with  him  heartily  in  the 
carrying  out  of  his  desires  and  purposes.  The  kindly 

T5Q 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

feeling  of  the  students,  also,  was  immediately  won  by 
the  cordiality  of  his  manner  and  disposition,  as  well  as 
by  the  geniality,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  of  his  intellectual 
nature.  His  first  work  was  coincident  with  the  opening 
of  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  institution — an  era 
which  promised  then  to  be  one  of  marked  scholarly 
progress,  and  which  afterwards,  as  the  years  moved  on, 
realized  the  fulfillment  of  the  promise.  In  every  re- 
spect, the  future  offered  him  a  happy  outlook. 

The  class  of  which  I  was  a  member  was  the  third 
which  came  under  his  instruction.  He  had  just  become 
settled  in  his  plan  of  working,  having  had  two  years 
of  experience,  and  he  no  doubt  felt  himself  more  com- 
pletely than  before  the  master  of  the  situation.  He 
was  of  course,  however,  in  the  early  days  of  his  service, 
and  had  not  yet  gained  what  the  subsequent  years  were 
to  bring  with  themselves.  He  met  us  three  times  in 
each  week,  alternating  with  Dr.  Woolsey  in  the  ex- 
ercises of  the  early  morning  hour.  These  exercises  were 
mainly  given  to  recitations  from  a  text-book,  in  connec- 
tion with  which  he  would  offer  suggestions  or  make 
such  comments  as  appeared  to  him  likely  to  be  helpful. 
But  from  time  to  time,  a  lecture  was  substituted  for  the 
recitation  work  and  was  made  to  serve  the  purpose  of 
giving  to  us  more  immediately  and  directly  his  own 
thoughts.  He  was  a  wide-awake  teacher,  and  was  ready 
to  adapt  himself  in  private  conferences  with  individual 
pupils  to  their  special  needs  and  desires.  He  was  ever 
very  attractive,  and  even  stimulating,  in  conversation 
with  those  who  visited  him  in  his  College  room,  or  at 
his  house.  To  us  of  the  earlier  days  there  seemed, 
sometimes,  to  be  a  certain  indefiniteness,  or  perhaps  I 
may  more  properly  call  it  indistinctness,  in  his  teaching 
in  the  class-room,  which  left  the  mind  of  the  pupil  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree  of  uncertainty,  or  a  state  of  in- 
decision. He  was  quite  at  a  remove  in  this  regard  from 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE      AND     MEN 

such  teachers  as  Dr.  Woolsey  and  Professor  Thacher. 
Doubtless,  this  may  have  been  owing,  in  part,  to  the 
nature  of  the  subject  which  he  had  to  teach,  but  it  was 
due,  also,  to  his  desire  to  place  before  our  minds  the 
considerations  and  arguments  favoring  the  opposite  sides 
of  questions  under  discussion.  There  is  a  certain  fair- 
ness or  fitness  in  such  a  method  of  instruction,  but  it  is 
less  adapted  to  students  who  are  in  the  early  stages  of 
their  investigations,  than  to  those  who  have  moved 
farther  onward  and  are  consequently  better  able  to  form 
a  judgment  for  themselves.  The  Professor's  own  mind, 
however,  was  of  the  order  which  finds  an  interest  in  all 
views  of  science  and  truth.  For  such  minds  the  dog- 
matic method  is  distasteful,  and  the  adoption  or  follow- 
ing of  it  is  difficult,  and  sometimes  well-nigh  impossible. 
In  the  period  of  my  college  life  and  for  a  few  years 
afterwards,  he  was  accustomed  to  offer  instruction  in 
John  Stuart  Mill's  work  on  Logic  to  members  of  the 
Senior  class,  who  might  be  disposed  to  take  this  study 
as  an  optional  course.  In  company  with  ten  or  twelve 
of  my  classmates,  I  availed  myself  of  the  offer,  and  thus 
had  the  privilege  of  meeting  him  in  connection  with  a 
small  and  select  body  of  pupils.  He  was  at  his  best  in 
his  association  with  such  a  body.  The  choice  of  the 
study  indicated  the  interest  of  each  and  all  in  it;  and, 
in  the  case  of  such  studies  as  Logic  and  Metaphysics,  the 
fact  of  the  choice  rendered  it  probable,  or  almost  certain, 
that  the  members  of  the  class  were  men  of  serious  pur- 
pose in  their  working.  The  teacher,  in  general, — 
especially  the  teacher  of  alert  mind, — most  of  all,  the 
teacher  who  is  at  his  best  in  what  may  be  described  as 
conversational  teaching,  finds  his  largest  freedom,  and 
the  widest  opportunities  for  his  enthusiasm  in  connection 
with  such  a  company  of  pupils.  An  inspiration  from 
without  unites  itself  with  the  inspiration  of  his  own 
mind  as  he  sees  the  responsive  ardor  of  his  students 
161 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

awakened  by  his  thoughts  and  words.  His  work  is  thus 
rendered  an  easy  and  delightful  one.  The  ideal  posi- 
tion for  a  college  professor,  so  far  as  his  highest  enjoy- 
ment, and  also  the  best  results  of  his  instruction  for 
each  and  every  individual  pupil  are  concerned — as  I  have 
often  pictured  it  to  myself — is  that  where  he  can  be 
seated  with  ten  or  fifteen  students,  all  of  the  best  order, 
about  a  table,  and  can  have  the  utmost  freedom  of 
scholarly  conversation  with  them,  listening  to  their  in- 
quiries and  imparting  to  them  of  his  own  thoughts  and 
knowledge.  Certainly,  this  was  the  ideal  position  for  a 
man  like  Dr.  Porter. 

I  would  not  say  that  the  small  optional  class  in  Logic, 
to  which  I  have  alluded,  was  of  this  ideal  character.  It 
was  not  so,  but  it  approached  somewhat  more  nearly 
to  the  ideal  than  would  have  been  possible,  if  all  the 
classmates  who  had  no  interest  in  the  study,  or  at  least 
no  special  interest  in  it,  had  been  within  the  membership. 
It  was  happier  for  the  membership  and  for  the  Professor 
that  the  number  was  limited.  The  student  of  my  college 
days — when  Cousin's  Psychology  was  the  text-book  in 
that  department — of  whom  it  was  said  that,  on  being 
inquired  of  by  a  friend  as  to  his  success  in  one  of  the 
examinations  of  the  course,  he  replied  that  he  had  been 
conditioned  in  Cousin,  and  in  Psychology — supposing, 
until  his  friend  relieved  his  mind,  that  they  were  two 
studies,  instead  of  one — could  hardly  have  been  a  help- 
ful or  stimulating  member  of  a  class  in  Metaphysics. 
The  Professor  gave  us  more  than  he  could  otherwise 
have  done,  because  we  were  a  selected  body — selected 
by  reason  of  our  own  impulses  and  interests.  The  ex- 
ercises which  we  thus  attended  I  remember,  and  I 
presume  that  my  associates  who  may  recall  with  vivid- 
ness their  college  days  also  remember,  with  a  special 
satisfaction.  They  were  more  awakening  to  mental 
activity  and  more  effective  for  mental  development  than 
162 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND     MEN 

those  which  pertained  strictly  to  the  daily  routine  of  the 
department  of  study. 

'Instructors  in  Metaphysics  are  quite  often  supposed 
to  be  what  college  students  call  dry  men,  and  their 
science  is  widely  regarded  as  peculiarly  characterized  by 
dryness.  I  do  not  know  why  it  should  be  so.  The 
science  which  deals  with  the  human  mind  would  seem, 
antecedently,  to  be  as  interesting,  as  stimulating,  and 
as  soul-stirring,  as  that  which  investigates  animal  life, 
or  the  forces  of  nature.  Possibly  the  supposed  dryness 
is  kindred  to  that  which  is  frequently  said  to  pertain  to 
mathematics — a  science  which,  it  is  claimed  by  those 
who  know  most  about  it,  has  its  true  life  and  abiding- 
place  in  the  sphere  of  the  imagination.  Perhaps  the 
idea  of  dryness  comes  to  the  mind  of  the  student,  or 
even  of  the  average  man  of  education,  as  it  does  in  the 
case  of  mathematics  at  the  outset,  because  it  requires, 
even  in  its  beginnings,  vigorous  and  strenuous  intellectual 
effort.  In  the  case  of  scholars  in  some  other  depart- 
ments, I  have  sometimes  thought  it  might  be  due  to  the 
difficulty  of  reaching,  within  its  domain,  absolutely 
definite  and  immovable  conclusions.  But,  after  half  a 
century  of  observation,  one  does  not  find  conclusions  alto- 
gether immovable  in  sciences  apart  from  metaphysics. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  any  other  teachers  of 
Metaphysical  science,  however,  Professor  Porter  was 
not  dry.  The  dryness  of  the  study,  in  case  it  was  felt 
by  pupils  to  exist,  pertained  to  the  subject  as  they  looked 
upon  it,  and  not  to  the  man.  We  left  our  exercises 
under  his  instruction  with  the  conviction  that  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  science  need  not  make  the  possessor  of  it  un- 
interesting, either  within  himself  or  in  his  relation  to 
those  about  him,  and  that  he  might  be,  as  truly  as  men  in 
other  lines  of  work  or  study,  a  man  full  of  life,  and 
of  interest  in  the  world's  life.  Those  of  our  number 
who  formed  his  optional  class  in  Logic,  and  I  think  also 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  larger  part  of  the  classmates  who  followed  only  the 
prescribed  courses,  had  the  feeling,  as  we  moved  forward 
in  and  reached  the  end  of  our  Senior  year,  that  the  study 
was  for  us  one  which,  in  a  very  special  sense  and  measure, 
developed  and  quickened  the  intellectual  powers.  Speak- 
ing for  myself,  I  have  always  had,  and  still  have,  this 
feeling;  and  my  conviction  is,  that  a  college  education 
should  include  mental  science  in  its  required  curriculum, 
and  that  without  it  the  best  results  are  not  likely  to  be 
realized.  While  saying  this,  however,  I  would  admit 
that  there  are  exceptional  cases  of  individual  students — 
as  there  are  in  relation  to  Mathematics,  another  science 
the  study  of  which  has  a  peculiar  strengthening  force 
for  the  mind — where  a  release  from  the  requirement 
may,  for  particular  and  sufficient  reasons,  be  granted. 
The  young  man  whom  I  have  mentioned,  who  failed  to 
understand  the  exact  connection  between  Psychology 
and  M.  Cousin,  may  have  been  one  of  these  exceptional 
persons.  But  there  are  not  many  like  him — if  indeed 
we  are  to  believe  that  the  difficulty  and  failure  in  his 
case  pertained  wholly  to  the  original  constitution  of  his 
mind.  Most  young  men  who  turn  away  from  the  study 
of  Mental  Philosophy,  or  of  Mathematics,  do  so  simply 
because  these  studies  seem  dry  or  hard.  But  the  man 
who  is  never  ready  to  do  what  appears  to  him  unat- 
tractive or  difficult,  has  not  developed  the  manliness  of 
his  manhood  intellectually,  or  in  any  other  line.  The 
theory  of  doing  only  what  is  pleasant,  or  what  requires 
no  forcing  of  the  will  against  its  first  inclinations,  has 
no  better  foundation  to  rest  upon  in  the  educational 
sphere,  than  it  has  elsewhere  in  human  life. 

I  am  disposed  to  think,  however,  that  the  required 
course  in  mental  science  in  the  period  of  my  undergrad- 
uate career  included  about  as  much  as  is  desirable.  It 
was  a  general  course,  or  a  course  which  gave  every 
man  an  introduction  to  and  survey  of  the  science,  and 
164 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

also  such  knowledge  of  it  as  was  strengthening  to  the 
intellectual  powers  and  helpful  to  all  educated  persons. 
In  the  progress  and  development  of  this  science  during 
the  last  half-century,  a  wonderful  advance  has  been 
made,  as  in  the  case  of  other  sciences,  and  discussions 
and  investigations  have  moved  into  all  minuteness,  as 
well  as  into  the  widest  possible  range  of  thought.  I 
doubt  whether  it  is  wise,  or  in  the  interest  of  the  best 
education  for  the  average  student,  to  carry  him  forward 
along  the  pathway  of  all  these  investigations  or  discus- 
sions. Beyond  a  certain  limit,  the  work  belongs,  as  in 
the  case  of  natural  or  physical  science,  rather  to  the  man 
who,  in  some  sense,  intends  to  make  it  a  specialty,  than 
to  one  who  turns  to  the  study  as  a  part  of  a  general 
educational  course.  It  may  fairly  be  questioned,  also, 
whether  the  time  required,  if  the  study  is  carried  beyond 
certain  limits,  is  not  too  great,  as  considered  in  relation 
to  the  length  of  the  undergraduate  period,  and  with 
reference  to  the  demands  of  other  branches  of  knowl- 
edge. A  reasonable  share  of  one  year's  studies,  as 
already  intimated,  was  allowed  to  this  department  in  my 
college  era.  I  think  this  arrangement  a  just  and  satis- 
factory one,  so  far  as  required  exercises  are  concerned. 
If  the  study  is  carried  farther  forward,  it  may  be  more 
wisely  provided  for  in  the  plan  of  the  elective  courses — 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  abundant  provision  should 
be  made  for  it  among  these  courses. 

As  a  disciplinarian,  Professor  Porter  was,  in  the  early 
days — though  abiding,  as  his  colleagues  did,  within  the 
older  system — more  like  President  Day  than  he  was  like 
Professor  Goodrich;  that  is,  more  disposed  to  leniency 
in  individual  cases  which  appealed  to  his  kindly  feeling, 
than  to  strictness  in  following  the  line  of  established 
rules  and  published  law.  Some  thought  him  too  lenient, 
and  probably  he  was  so  oftentimes.  But  it  is  well  for 
a  College  Faculty — or  perhaps  it  is — to  have  all  the 

165 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

better  qualities  of  human  nature  represented  in  its  mem- 
bership, even  as  a  man  may  fitly  have  them  mingled  in 
due  proportion  in  his  individual  constitution.  However 
this  may  be,  we  of  the  older  age  may  felicitate  ourselves 
in  the  thought  that  President  Day  was  regarded  by  all 
his  associates  as  the  wisest  and  best  of  men,  and  that 
both  he  and  Professor  Porter  won  the  hearts  of  the 
students,  and  thus  gained  a  peculiar  power  and  influence 
over  them.  I  doubt  whether  a  man  like  Mr.  Porter 
could  have  been  otherwise  than  lenient  in  his  disposition 
— whether  he  could  have  been  as  strict  as  is  a  rule  with 
no  exceptions.  As  a  personality  in  the  College  com- 
munity he  was  a  stimulative  force,  for  he  was  always 
sympathetic  with  those  who  were  seeking  after  light; 
always  hopeful  with  reference  to  the  promise  of  the 
future;  always  giving  evidence — as  Dr.  Bacon  said  of 
the  Yale  scholars  in  general  to  a  German  professor,  who 
was  comparing  our  College  in  this  respect  with  another 
that  he  had  just  visited — that  "his  eyes  were  in  the  front, 
and  not  in  the  back  of  his  head." 

With  reference  to  Professor  Thacher,  I  have  said  so 
much  in  a  former  chapter,  describing  him  as  he  was  in 
my  undergraduate  years,  that  I  will  only  add  a  few 
words  in  this  place.  In  the  period  of  which  I  am  now 
writing,  he  was  perhaps  the  most  influential  person  in  the 
professorial  body  as  related  to  all  things  pertaining  to 
the  government  and  discipline  of  the  student  community. 
Dr.  Woolsey  and  his  older  colleagues  depended  on  him, 
as  they  did  ever  afterwards,  in  such  matters,  and  relied 
with  great  confidence  upon  his  judgment.  Their  con- 
fidence was  well  founded,  for  he  had  unusual  qualifica- 
tions for  this  sphere  of  duties.  In  cases  of  disorder  or 
impropriety  of  conduct  his  intelligent  understanding  of 
college  men  enabled  him  to  make  the  investigation  which 
was  necessary  in  the  wisest  way.  He  did  not  suffer 
166 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

himself  to  be  led  into  mistakes  through  any  excess  of 
suspicion.  No  more,  on  the  other  hand,  did  he  take 
advantage  of  his  official  position  to  overbear  the  student 
with  his  authority.  He  dealt  with  him  in  a  manly  man- 
ner and  in  all  sincerity.  That  he  never  failed  in  his 
methods,  or  never  passed  in  his  actions  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  charity  that  believes  and  hopes  all  things,  I  would 
not  affirm.  It  would  be  too  much  to  say  this  of  any 
man  of  the  authoritative  order  to  which  he  belonged. 
But  the  instances  of  such  fault  or  failure  were  few  and 
far  between,  and  are  in  the  memory  of  the  smallest 
number  of  his  pupils,  if  indeed  they  still  linger  in  the 
minds  of  any  among  them.  On  the  contrary,  by  his 
kind  and  judicious  action  in  his  personal  conferences 
with  those  who  were  charged  with  offences  or  supposed 
to  have  committed  them,  he  often  opened  the  way  for 
their  relief  from  all  suspicion  on  the  part  of  the  au- 
thorities. His  helpfulness,  which  was  manifested  in 
many  ways  in  his  more  private  relations  to  students  and 
his  familiar  meetings  with  them,  was  widely  recognized. 
Throughout  his  entire  professorial  career  he  acted  as  a 
friendly  guardian  for  individual  pupils,  on  behalf  of 
whose  interests  and  welfare  he  never  ceased  to  be  watch- 
ful. The  service  which  he  thus  rendered  was  as  generous 
as  it  was  wise. 

In  those  years  there  were  not  as  many  questions 
respecting  the  general  development  of  the  educational 
system  of  the  College,  which  pressed  themselves  upon 
the  attention  of  the  Faculty,  as  there  have  been  in  the 
periods  that  have  followed.  With  reference  to  this 
whole  subject,  however,  so  far  as  it  was  brought  under 
discussion,  he  had  definite  and  decided  opinions  which  he 
was  always  ready  to  make  known.  They  were  founded 
upon  what  he  deemed  satisfactory  and  sufficient  reasons, 
and  his  expression  of  them  was  accompanied  by  an 
earnest  setting  forth  of  the  arguments  in  their  support. 
167 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

A  genuine  and  strong  faith  in  the  Yale  ideas  of  college 
training  and  of  manhood,  which  suffered  no  intermin- 
gling of  doubts  as  to  their  fundamental  truth,  dwelt 
always  in  his  mind.  To  realize  these  ideas  in  their 
richest  results,  both  for  himself  and  for  all  within  the 
walls  of  the  institution,  was  his  most  ardent  desire.  To 
this  end  he  consecrated  himself  as  one  who  had  been 
summoned  to  an  honorable  work  in  a  sphere  of  highest 
usefulness.  This  self-devotion  was  manifest  in  the 
earlier  and  the  later  years  alike. 

In  his  personal  appearance,  he  seemed  at  that  time — 
at  the  age  of  thirty-six  to  forty — even  as  he  did  after- 
wards, to  be  a  man  of  vigorous  health  and  manly  force. 
His  deeply  set,  yet  clear  and  keen  eyes,  his  high  and 
projecting  forehead,  and  his  large  head  gave  one  the 
impression  of  intellectual  strength.  His  general  bearing 
was  characteristic  of  a  man  of  executive  power  and  of 
business  ability  and  energy.  We  all  felt  that  he  would 
have  a  constantly  increasing  prominence  in  the  institu- 
tion as  he  should  move  forward  in  his  career. 

Professor  Hadley  entered  upon  his  work  as  an  in- 
structor in  the  College  at  the  beginning  of  my  under- 
graduate course.  He  became  an  assistant  professor 
at  the  opening  of  my  Senior  year,  and  was  appointed  a 
professor  in  the  summer  of  1851.  When  my  term  of 
service  as  a  tutor  began,  accordingly,  he  was  not  far 
beyond  the  starting-point  of  his  more  permanent  official 
life.  My  first  acquaintance  with  him  was  formed  at 
the  time  of  my  coming  under  his  instruction  as  our  tutor 
in  Greek,  in  the  academic  year  1847-48.  From  the 
very  outset  he  seemed  to  me  to  be  more  accessible  than 
most  of  our  other  instructors  had  been.  By  reason  of 
this  fact,  I  was  encouraged  in  approaching  him  with 
greater  readiness  and  confidence,  and,  as  the  result,  I 
soon  found  myself  on  friendly  terms  with  him  as  a  pupil 
168 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

may  be  with  his  teacher.  He  was,  as  already  stated,  but 
a  few  years  older  than  myself.  Consequently,  the  bar- 
rier to  freedom  of  intercourse,  which  is  oftentimes  occa- 
sioned by  differences  in  age,  did  not  prevent  us  from 
coming  together,  as  it  were,  on  common  ground  in 
thought  and  sympathy.  Moreover,  there  was  on  his 
part  no  assumption  of  official  dignity,  which  set  him 
apart  by  himself,  or  interfered  in  any  measure  with  a 
student's  friendly  talk  concerning  things  pertaining  to 
the  scholarly  life.  I  think  he  greatly  enjoyed  conversa- 
tion. He  was,  certainly,  always  willing  to  give  expres- 
sion to  his  thoughts.  Such  association  with  a  teacher 
I  felt  to  be  an  unusual  gift  of  good  fortune,  and  I  was 
very  glad  to  avail  myself  of  the  advantage  of  it,  from 
time  to  time,  during  my  Junior  and  Senior  years. 

In  the  second  year  after  my  graduation  I  had  the 
privilege,  together  with  my  friend,  Clinton  Camp,  whose 
name  I  have  already  mentioned,  of  taking  my  daily 
meals  at  the  same  table  with  him,  for  a  period  of  several 
months,  at  the  hotel  which  was  then  the  principal  one 
in  the  city.  We  thus  entered  into  somewhat  more  of 
the  intimacy  of  friendship,  and  I  came  to  know  him  in 
a  new  relation,  wherein  the  distinction  between  pupil 
and  instructor  altogether  disappeared.  After  two 
years  more,  I  became  the  senior  official  among  the  tutors, 
while  he  was  still  the  junior  among  the  professors,  and 
we  seemed  to  each  other  to  stand  yet  more  nearly  on  the 
same  level.  There  was  indeed  a  separating  space  be- 
tween the  temporary  teacher,  who  had  no  assurance  of 
the  future,  and  the  permanent  one,  whose  plan  of  life 
was  already  determined  and  for  whom  all  anxious  ques- 
tionings concerning  it  were  laid  aside.  But  as  bearing 
upon  the  intercourse  of  one  young  man  with  another, 
the  separation  appeared  but  a  small  matter.  We  dis- 
cussed subjects  of  general,  or  personal  interest,  without 
any  disturbing  thought  as  to  a  difference  in  age  between 
169 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

us.  We  even  opposed  each  other  in  the  debates  of  the 
Faculty  occasionally,  with  entire  forgetfulness  on  both 
sides  of  the  remove  of  the  professor's  position  from  that 
of  the  tutor. 

I  will  try  at  this  point  of  my  story  to  give  the 
impression  which  I  had  of  him  in  those  days  of  our 
earlier  acquaintance,  reserving  some  further  words  re- 
specting his  life  and  work  for  a  later  page.  Mr.  Hadley 
in  the  years  between  1845  and  1855 — that  is,  from  the 
twenty-fourth  to  the  thirty-fourth  year  of  his  age — was 
a  young  man  of  somewhat  peculiar  and  striking  appear- 
ance. His  features  individually  were  not  impressive, 
except  that  his  eyes  were  exceptionally  bright  and  full 
of  the  manifestation  of  mental  life.  As  the  result  of 
an  unfortunate  accident  in  his  childhood,  he  was  afflicted 
with  a  permanent  lameness  in  one  of  his  lower  limbs,  and 
was  obliged  to  walk  with  the  aid  of  a  crutch  and  cane. 
During  the  time  to  which  I  am  referring  he  always  wore 
a  cap,  like  those  of  the  younger  students,  which  he 
placed,  as  if  of  set  purpose,  far  back  upon  his  head. 
He  was  of  only  medium  height — not  more  than  five 
feet  and  six  or  seven  inches.  In  his  walking  and  other 
movements  he  was  active  and  seemed  to  make  no  special 
effort.  He  moved,  indeed,  oftentimes,  with  rapidity, 
and  in  the  ease  and  quickness  with  which  he  descended 
a  flight  of  stairs  he  equalled,  or  even  surpassed,  his 
associates  who  had  no  physical  infirmity.  I  think  he 
could,  in  case  of  necessity,  have  pursued  a  retreating 
student,  who  desired  to  escape  him,  with  a  considerable 
measure  of  success — though,  of  course,  there  was  not 
often  occasion  to  make  the  attempt.  His  pursuit  of 
students  was  prevailingly  in  the  mental  sphere;  and  there 
— when  the  race  began — no  chance  of  escape  was  of- 
fered. The  undergraduate  community  respected  him 
and  had  an  admiration  for  his  intellectual  gifts.  They 
were  proud  of  him  as  a  representative  of  Yale  scholar- 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

ship.     They  felt  that  he  honored  them  and  the  institu- 
tion by  his  presence  within  its  walls. 

Professor  Hadley,  as  a  scholar,  was  characterized  in 
a  remarkable  degree,  by  accuracy,  wideness  of  range, 
penetrative  research,  ever  wakeful  enthusiasm,  and  a 
power  of  retaining  in  his  mind  everything  that  he  ac- 
quired. His  accuracy  was  unaccompanied  by  the 
pettiness  which  is  sometimes  attendant  upon  it  in  other 
men.  The  wideness  in  his  range  of  learning  did  not 
have  as  its  result  any  measure  of  superficiality,  or  any 
want  of  depth  or  thoroughness.  His  spirit  of  research 
could  never  be  satisfied  until  it  had  reached  the  farthest 
limits  of  possibility.  His  enthusiasm  was  quiet  and 
undemonstrative,  but  was  equally  ready  for  the  entrance 
upon  new  studies  or  the  further  prosecution  of  old  ones. 
His  memory  was  phenomenal,  beyond  that  of  almost  any 
man  whom  I  have  ever  known.  He  not  only  had  the  gift 
of  remembering  with  definiteness  and  in  detail  all  that 
he  had  learned  or  read,  but  a  very  uncommon  power  of 
stating  and  presenting  what  was  in  his  recollection,  which 
rendered  the  possession  of  the  knowledge  doubly  useful 
to  him.  I  recall  the  fact  that,  on  one  occasion,  I  myself 
communicated  to  him,  with  some  minuteness  of  par- 
ticulars, certain  facts,  not  very  important  in  themselves, 
of  which  he  evidently  had  not  been  previously  informed. 
Two  days  afterwards,  having  forgotten,  by  some  ex- 
traordinary lapse,  the  source  of  his  information,  he  called 
at  my  room,  and  in  the  course  of  the  interview  he  told 
me  of  the  matter  as  if  it  were  unknown  to  me.  As  he 
gave  the  details,  he  set  them  forth  so  accurately,  so 
distinctly,  so  impressively  as  if  he  were  himself  the  only 
person  who  had  ever  been  cognizant  of  them,  that  it  was 
almost  impossible  for  me  to  realize  that  he  had  learned 
the  whole  matter  from  myself.  He  had,  indeed,  lost 
for  the  moment  the  recollection  of  the  person  who  had 
related  to  him  the  facts — a  matter  of  minor  consequence, 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

— but,  as  for  the  facts  themselves,  they  had  been  at  once 
imprinted  indelibly  on  his  mind;  so  that  he  could  have 
them  in  readiness  for  future  use,  whenever  such  use 
might  become  desirable.  And  yet  I  remember  a  con- 
versation with  him  in  which  he  maintained,  with  all 
seriousness,  that  his  memory  was  not  excellent — that  it 
was  even  imperfect.  I  have  known  other  men  of  re- 
markable powers  in  this  line  who  have  affirmed  the  same 
thing  with  reference  to  themselves.  I  suppose  it  may 
be  because  their  standard  of  excellence  is  as  much  higher 
than  that  of  their  less  gifted  associates,  as  the  measure 
of  the  power  in  them  is  greater.  But  if  I  could  have 
been  the  possessor  of  a  memory  like  that  of  James 
Hadley,  I  know  that  I  should  have  been  satisfied — and 
nobody  in  the  Yale  circle  would,  in  this  regard,  have 
surpassed  me,  or  even  have  equalled  me  except  himself. 
His  memory  was  one  which  was  retentive  of  all  things 
that  were  worthy  of  retention,  alike  in  the  sphere  of 
scholarship  and  in  that  of  ordinary  life. 

His  faculty  of  precise  statement,  and  of  expressing 
his  ideas  in  the  most  appropriate  forms  of  speech,  not 
only  contributed  to  the  value  of  his  instruction,  but  added 
much  to  its  interest  for  the  minds  of  his  students.  In 
the  Greek  studies,  which  were  his  special  department,  he 
led  us  forward  in  the  way  of  linguistic  accuracy,  and  of 
an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  thoughts  of  the 
authors  whose  works  we  were  reading.  He  set  before 
us,  also,  a  standard  of  scholarship  which  we  should  strive 
to  attain,  and  by  his  method  of  teaching,  as  well  as  his 
personal  habits  as  a  student,  he  gave  us  an  impulse  for 
our  efforts.  Had  the  emotional  element  been  as  strong 
within  him  as  was  the  intellectual,  he  would  have  been 
a  more  remarkable  teacher  even  than  we  all  thought 
him  to  be — and  we  certainly  had  a  very  high  estimate 
of  his  powers.  The  intellectual  element,  however,  as 
I  think,  was  predominant,  if  not  indeed  in  his  native 
172 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

endowments,  at  least  in  its  ability  and  readiness  to  mani- 
fest itself.  As  a  consequence,  though  he  was  a  stimulat- 
ing instructor  for  scholarly  men,  he  did  not — as  it 
seemed  to  me — possess  what  I  may  call  the  magnetic 
gift,  or  that  peculiar  power  which  inspires  the  pupil  with 
an  almost  resistless  desire  to  press  forward  at  once,  and 
to  the  farthest  limit,  in  the  study  which  is  opened  Before 
him.  In  my  personal  relations  with  my  early  instructors 
I  met,  indeed,  only  three  or  four  who  had  this  special 
gift  in  any  large  or  remarkable  degree.  One  of  these 
was  the  late  Dr.  Nathaniel  W.  Taylor,  the  eminent 
theologian,  and  professor  in  our  Yale  Divinity  School, 
and  the  others  were  professors  in  the  universities  of 
Germany.  With  the  many  excellences  and  talents  by 
which  the  ablest  and  best  of  my  college  teachers  were 
characterized,  this  power  was  not  united,  as  indeed  it 
is  not  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  able  men  in  any  profes- 
sion or  department  of  life.  I  remember  once  hearing 
Dr.  Woolsey  say  that  he  thought  that  he  himself  did 
not  possess  it.  Possibly  in  his  case  and  in  Mr.  Hadley's 
the  gift,  if  possessed,  might  have  limited  in  some  meas- 
ure the  full  exercise  of  other  extraordinary  powers 
through  which  they  rendered  their  pupils  especial  ser- 
vice. If  so,  the  loss  might  have  seemed  greater  than 
the  gain.  It  would  have  been  a  loss  which  all  would 
have  appreciated  and  deeply  regretted. 

The  required  studies  of  the  curriculum  in  the  Greek 
department  were  completed,  in  those  days,  at  the  close 
of  the  second  term  of  the  Junior  year.  In  the  third 
or  summer  session,  History  took  the  place  of  Greek,  and 
Mr.  Hadley  had  charge  of  the  instruction  in  this  sub- 
ject. He  fulfilled  the  task  assigned  to  him  with  fidelity 
and  by  his  teaching  added  to  the  students'  knowledge 
according  to  the  possibilities  of  the  case.  But  within 
the  limits  of  the  few  weeks  which  made  the  term  there 
was  not  much  opportunity  to  awaken  enthusiasm  for  the 

173 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

study  in  their  minds — especially,  as  the  exercises  were 
confined  to  recitations  from  a  text-book,  and  the  text- 
book used  was  Taylor's  Manual  of  History.  Such 
Manuals  are  now  mainly  or  wholly  things  of  the  past, 
so  far  as  college  instruction  is  concerned.  At  that 
period,  however,  they  were  extensively  used,  and  were 
regarded  as  very  helpful,  if  not  indeed  essential,  to  the 
student's  best  historical  education.  The  Manual  which 
my  class  used  was  as  good  as  any  that  had  then  been 
published,  but  it  was,  like  books  of  its  character  in 
general,  far  from  inspiriting.  We  certainly  found  it  a 
difficult  task  to  possess  ourselves  of  its  contents  so 
accurately,  and  so  far  in  detail,  as  to  enable  us  to  recite 
in  any  satisfactory  measure  after  the  memoriter  method, 
which  was  then  more  approved  and  insisted  upon  by 
teachers  than  it  is  at  present.  As  an  evidence  of  Mr. 
Hadley's  extraordinary  gift  in  the  sphere  of  memory, 
and  an  evidence  which  never  ceased  to  astonish  us,  I 
may  mention  that,  at  every  successive  exercise,  though 
he  brought  the  book  with  him  to  the  recitation-room,  he 
closed  it  as  soon  as  he  called  upon  the  first  member  of 
the  class  to  recite,  and  did  not  open  it  again  until  the 
hour  came  to  its  end  and  we  were  dismissed.  Mean- 
while, he  noticed  and  corrected  every  error  which  the 
students  made  in  facts  or  statements,  and  showed  that  he 
was  everywhere  more  familiar  with  the  lesson  than  they 
were.  As  I  recall  my  old  conversation  with  him  about 
his  memory,  now  fifty  years  ago,  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that,  notwithstanding  his  affirmation  respecting  himself, 
my  view  of  his  gift  rested  on  a  truer  basis  than  his 
own. 

No  description  of  him  as  a  man  or  as  a  teacher,  even 
at  that  early  period,  would  be  complete  without  an  allu- 
sion to  his  wit  and  humor.  All  who  knew  him  will 
remember  with  distinctness  and  with  pleasure  this  char- 
acteristic of  his  mind,  which  rendered  him  especially 

174 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

attractive  in  social  intercourse.  His  wit  was  of  the 
higher  order.  It  pertained  to,  and  was  the  outcome  of, 
the  remarkable  brightness  of  his  intellectual  powers.  It 
seemed  to  be  always  present  when  it  might  happily  reveal 
the  thought  which  was  expressed,  or  might  give  moment- 
ary delight  to  the  speaker  or  the  listener  as  they  con- 
ferred together.  Yet  it  was  rarely,  if  ever,  suffered  to 
display  itself  as  if  merely  for  its  own  sake,  or  to  make 
any  show  which  tended  to  lower  the  thoughtful  char- 
acter of  the  conversation  or  discourse. 

His  voice  and  mode  of  utterance  were  somewhat 
peculiar.  There  was  a  kind  of  drawl,  which  attracted 
attention,  in  a  special  degree,  when  one  met  him  for  the 
first  time,  and  which  was  not  altogether  pleasing.  But 
as  one  became  accustomed  to  it,  one  lost  thought  of  it 
in  large  measure;  and  as  for  myself,  I  found  it  difficult 
in  the  later  years  to  realize  the  fullness  of  the  impression 
which  it  had  made  upon  me  at  the  beginning.  I  have  to 
confess,  however,  that  in  my  younger  days  I  used  to  try 
sometimes  to  imitate  him,  for  my  own  entertainment  and 
that  of  my  youthful  friends.  As  I  did  so,  I  discovered 
for  myself  more  fully — what  was  manifest  indeed  to  all, 
without  any  such  effort  on  their  part — that  the  pecu- 
liarity of  his  utterance  gave  a  certain  additional  humor- 
ous force  to  his  witty  sayings.  College  students  always 
enjoy  humor  which  has  a  certain  intellectual  element  in 
it.  They  enjoyed  his  humor  greatly,  and  the  sayings 
of  "Old  Hadley" — as  they  began,  almost  from  the  first 
to  call  him,  in  distinction  from  his  younger  brother  who 
was  of  the  Class  of  1847 — were  often  passed  gladly 
from  one  to  another,  and  were  cherished  in  the  memory 
with  much  satisfaction  and  delight.  I  wish  I  could 
recall  many  of  them  which  were  long  familiar  to  me, 
even  as  household  words.  But  the  pleasurable  things 
that  lose  their  hold  upon  the  remembrance  in  the  passing 
of  half  a  century  are  almost  numberless.  They  remain 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  the  dim  retrospect  as  a  kind  of  half-living  presence, 
but  the  vividness  of  the  reality  is  gone.  So  it  is  in 
every  part  of  the  mind,  and  throughout  the  whole  sphere 
of  memory  and  of  knowledge.  Our  human  lives  on 
every  side  are  the  growth  of  forces,  once  seen  and  after- 
ward unseen ;  and  the  wonder  of  them  for  us  all  is  in  the 
joyous  delight  of  the  growing. 

The  rules  of  the  College,  in  the  period  to  which  I 
am  now  referring,  provided  that  in  the  Junior  year  the 
students  should,  from  time  to  time,  discuss  before  their 
instructors  in  written  argumentative  essays  questions  of 
special  or  public  interest.  The  exercises  were  called 
Disputes,  and  at  the  close  of  each  of  them  the  instructor 
was  expected  to  give  his  "decision,"  which  was  a  some- 
what extended  familiar  talk  expressing  his  own  personal 
views.  Mr.  Hadley  gave  many  of  these  talks,  on  a 
large  variety  of  subjects,  to  members  of  successive  Junior 
classes.  They  were  thus  in  a  very  happy  way  brought 
into  connection  with  him  in  his  thoughts  and  were  en- 
abled to  observe  most  pleasantly  the  working  of  his  in- 
tellectual powers.  None  of  his  old  pupils  can  forget 
the  stimulating  influence  of  those  decisions,  as  it  united 
itself  with  that  of  his  instruction  and  his  scholarship. 

Professors  Hadley  and  Thacher,  as  teachers,  belonged 
to  a  transition  period,  or  did  their  work  at  a  particular 
stage  in  the  progress  of  instruction  in  our  colleges,  as 
related  to  the  department  of  the  ancient  languages. 
Their  term  of  service  was  quite  in  advance  of  the  era 
preceding  it,  and  they  gave  themselves  with  intelligence 
and  earnestness  to  that  which  seemed  to  open  for  them 
to  do.  It  was  the  time  when  grammatical  and  linguistic 
study  was  beginning  its  great  advance  movement, — the 
time  when  philology  was,  as  we  may  say,  first  mani- 
festing itself  in  our  scholarly  world  as  a  science.  The 
earlier  days  had  been,  at  the  most,  only  preparatory  in 
176 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

their  work.  At  Yale,  Professors  Kingsley  and  Woolsey 
had  filled  those  days  with  their  appropriate  service. 
They  had  seen  the  promise  of  the  future,  and  had  been 
impelled,  by  reason  of  the  vision,  to  make  all  things 
ready  for  its  realization.  Their  more  youthful  col- 
leagues and  successors  entered  into  their  labors,  but  the 
opening  of  the  new  epoch  was  coincident  with  the  begin- 
ning of  the  younger  men's  career.  Dr.  Woolsey,  indeed, 
lived  even  to  the  close  of  that  special  period,  and  beyond 
it,  and  he  did  much  in  the  way  of  co-operation,  and 
somewhat  even  in  that  of  leadership,  during  the  years 
of  his  Presidency.  His  duties  in  this  administrative 
office,  however,  which  necessarily  turned  his  energies  in 
large  measure  in  other  directions,  as  also  the  work  con- 
nected with  his  new  department  of  instruction,  obliged 
him  to  leave  to  his  associates  the  chief  responsibility  per- 
taining to  this  sphere  of  scholarly  development. 

The  two  younger  men  were  admirably  adapted  to  the 
work  which  the  epoch  called  for.  They  moved  forward, 
from  the  very  outset,  with  a  truly  progressive  spirit,  with 
a  genuine  enthusiasm,  and  with  a  scholarship  which  ever 
kept  in  mind  the  possibilities  of  the  future.  Professor 
Thacher,  as  a  gifted  teacher  and  an  accurate  student; 
Professor  Hadley,  as  a  scholar  of  large  attainments,  and 
with  capacities  and  impulses  of  a  remarkable  character 
fitting  him  for  philological  investigation  and  research ; — 
the  two  men  appeared  to  all  who  knew  them  in  the  Yale 
fraternity  to  have  been  assigned  by  some  happy  destiny 
or  favoring  fortune  to  the  office  which  they  were  to  fill. 

The  work  of  these  two  instructors — each  eminent  in 
his  own  way — was,  however,  in  its  turn,  like  that  of  their 
predecessors  who  have  been  mentioned,  and  indeed  like 
that  of  all  University  men,  preparatory  for  what  was  to 
come  in  a  later  period.  •  There  can  be  no  doubt,  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  present  time  and  of  a  time  beyond 
the  present,  that  the  grammatical  and  philological  ele- 
177 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

ments  in  the  matter  of  classical  scholarship  were  made 
too  prominent  and  had  too  exclusive  attention  given  to 
them  in  the  years  from  1850  to  1885.  According  to  the 
general  laws  of  progress  in  the  world,  it  may  have  been 
legitimate — or,  as  we  may  say,  in  a  manner  necessary — 
for  the  movement  to  be  just  what  it  was.  The  transition 
from  the  imperfect  and  comparatively  unscholarly  condi- 
tion of  the  earlier  part  of  the  century  may  have  required 
such  an  exclusively  linguistic  development.  But  if  so, 
this  development  was  not  the  full  growth  and  perfection 
which  many  of  the  men  of  the  era  seemed  to  think  it 
was.  It  was  happily  but  a  preparatory  stage  of  the 
progress.  The  scholarship  of  the  present  and  the  future 
has  and  will  have  in  it  the  best  results  of  that  era,  but  it 
will  be  broader  and  more  inspiring,  and  more  full  of 
vitalizing  force  for  the  student  of  the  classical  languages 
and  literature.  The  men  of  whom  I  am  now  writing 
were,  certainly,  among  the  number  of  the  ablest  and 
most  useful  of  those  who,  in  the  history  of  our  Univer- 
sity, have  been  called  to  its  chairs  of  instruction.  They 
did  their  work  admirably  for  their  time,  and  passed  it 
over  at  the  end  in  full  readiness  for  what  was  to  come 
afterward.  But  the  afterward  was  to  be  better  and 
greater  than  they  knew,  even  as  it  is  and  must  be  always. 

Of  Professor  Stanley  I  am  able  to  say  only  a  few 
words.  He  had  been  obliged,  by  reason  of  the  disease 
which  not  long  afterwards  caused  his  death,  to  leave  his 
college  work  in  the  autumn  following  my  graduation, 
and  to  go  to  Europe,  where  he  spent  two  years — partly 
in  seeking  recovery  of  strength,  and  partly  in  study.  At 
the  opening  of  the  academic  year  1851-52,  he  resumed 
his  collegiate  duties,  with  the  hope  that  he  might  soon 
find  his  health  fully  re-established.  But  the  disease 
which  was  upon  him — pulmonary  tuberculosis — was  de- 
ceptive in  its  promises,  as  it  so  often  is,  and  at  the  close 
178 


PROFESSOR    ANTHONY    D.    STANLEY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  the  first  term  of  the  year  he  was  again  compelled  to 
abandon  his  work,  and  to  return  to  his  early  home.  It 
proved  to  be  a  final  return,  for,  after  about  fifteen 
months  of  gradually  wasting  strength  and  declining  life- 
force,  the  end  came,  and  he  passed  away  peacefully  to 
the  world  beyond.  My  only  knowledge  of  him,  accord- 
ingly, was  that  which  I  gained  while  under  his  instruction 
in  my  Sophomore  year  and  in  occasional  interviews  in  the 
years  that  immediately  followed. 

His  mathematical  gifts  and  his  inclination  toward 
that  class  of  studies  had  already  in  his  undergraduate 
years  become  manifest  to  his  instructors,  and  their  minds 
.were  early  inspired  with  the  hope  that  he  might,  in  due 
time,  be  prepared  to  take  a  permanent  position  in  the 
College.  This  hope  was  strengthened  by  reason  of  his 
marked  success  as  a  scholar  and  teacher  while  he  held 
for  a  time  the  office  of  tutor.  It  was  accordingly  with 
great  satisfaction  that  the  Corporation  offered  him,  in 
1836,  a  Professorship,  and  found  him  ready  to  accept  it. 
He  entered  upon  his  work  after  an  interval  of  two  years 
of  study  in  Europe  which,  at  his  request,  had  been 
allowed  him  by  the  College  authorities.  In  the  period 
which  preceded  my  undergraduate  life,  he  had  made 
large  attainments  and  had  already  gained  for  himself 
recognition  and  esteem.  His  first  published  work  ap- 
peared just  as  my  class  came  under  his  instruction.  This 
was  a  large  volume  consisting  of  Tables  of  Logarithms 
which,  as  it  was  placed  in  our  hands,  seemed  to  our 
minds  a  marvel  of  scholarly  labor  and  accuracy.  The 
same  judgment  respecting  it  was  found  everywhere 
among  teachers  and  the  men  who  were  qualified  to  esti- 
mate its  value.  The  burden  of  the  mere  proof-reading 
of  such  a  book,  which  must  have  been  of  necessity  re- 
peated several  times,  impressed  me  as  I  first  opened  the 
volume,  and  I  well  remember  how  the  Professor  him0"1 
afterwards  spoke  to  me  of  the  exhaustive  effect  upon  ti. 

179 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

nerve  force  which  he  had  experienced  as  the  result  of  it. 
He  was  ready,  however,  for  any  measure  of  effort  that 
was  demanded  of  him,  and  within  two  years  another 
book  gave  testimony  to  his  industry  as  well  as  his  ability. 
His  working  was  too  continuous,  no  doubt,  and  in  conse- 
quence was  harmful,  but  the  impulse  of  his  nature  moved 
him  with  an  almost  irresistible  power. 

As  I  recall  him  to  mind,  he  appeared,  whether  one 
met  him  on  the  street  or  in  his  room,  to  be  what  he  really 
was — a  man  of  retiring  disposition  and  unobtrusive  man- 
ners; one  who,  though  evidently  a  scholar,  had  no  desire 
to  impress  others  with  the  extent  of  his  knowledge  or  the 
wideness  of  its  range.  He  seemed,  indeed, — as  we  came 
to  know  him — to  be  more  truly  himself  in  his  room,  than 
on  the  street,  for  the  atmosphere  of  study  was  the 
genuine  atmosphere  of  his  life.  When  he  presented  him- 
self before  his  classes  at  the  appointed  hours,  the  schol- 
arly influence  of  the  man  was  felt  as  attendant  upon  his 
work  of  instruction.  There  was  no  doubt  in  any  mind 
that  he  had  the  mastery  of  his  science  and  that,  if  the 
student  followed  his  leading,  the  best  discipline,  as  well 
as  the  most  accurate  knowledge,  would  be  secured.  But 
beyond  this — the  thought  of  the  satisfaction  for  the 
lover  of  learning  which  could  be  found,  apart  from  the 
outer  world,  in  the  studies  of  his  choice,  suggested  itself 
to  every  one  who  looked  upon  him.  If  he  had  lived  to 
advanced  age,  it  is  believed  that  he  would  have  held  a 
most  prominent  position  among  the  mathematicians  of 
the  country,  but  his  more  direct  service  to  the  College 
would  have  been  always  rendered  in  the  sphere  of  its 
quiet  daily  life  and  through  his  faithful  working  in  the 
retirement  of  his  own  room. 


XI. 

Dr.  Woolsey — His  Inauguration,  and  Early  Work. 

IN  this  company  of  Professors  the  presiding  officer 
was  Dr.  Woolsey.  At  the  time  when  I  entered 
the  board  of  instruction  as  one  of  its  younger 
members,  he  had  held  the  executive  position  for  a  period 
of  five  years — his  induction  into  his  office  having  taken 
place  on  the  2ist  of  October,  1846.  With  a  very  dis- 
tinct remembrance  I  recall  the  service  and  ceremony  of 
that  occasion.  A  young  student  just  entering  my  Sopho- 
more year,  I  was  deeply  impressed  by  all  that  I  saw  and 
heard.  I  listened  intelligently  and  with  close  attention, 
as  young  students  are  wont  to  do  when  they  are  inter- 
ested, to  the  addresses  which  were  made  by  the  outgoing 
and  the  incoming  Presidents,  as  well  as  to  the  sermon 
which  was  preached  by  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  day,  when  Dr.  Woolsey  was  formally 
ordained  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel.  Dr.  Woolsey  had, 
indeed,  studied  theology  soon  after  his  graduation  and 
had  preached  occasionally,  but  he  had  not  previously  de- 
voted himself  to  the  work  of  the  clerical  profession  or 
received  ordination. 

The  whole  scene — the  large  assembly  of  distinguished 
personages  invited  to  be  present,  as  well  as  of  graduates 
and  friends  of  the  College ;  the  venerable  man  who  was 
laying  aside  the  responsibilities  and  duties  of  his  official 
position,  and  his  successor,  now  in  the  prime  of  life, 
upon  whom  they  were  to  rest  in  the  new  era ;  the  reverend 
and  honorable  members  of  the  Corporation  who  seemed 
to  me,  especially  the  former,  to  be  the  dignitaries  of  an 
181 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

older  generation,  solemn  with  the  seriousness  of  age  and 
of  conscious  power;  the  students,  a  happy,  hopeful  com- 
pany, all  having  a  sweet  satisfaction  in  the  present  and  a 
joyous  outlook  towards  the  future — the  whole  scene  had 
an  imposing  character  which  was  fitted  to  make  a  deep 
and  permanent  impression  upon  those  who  witnessed  it, 
and  especially  upon  a  youthful  undergraduate  like  my- 
self. How  far  remote  from  my  age  and  position  the  old 
President  and  the  new  one  seemed  to  me  to  be,  as  I 
looked  upon  them  from  my  seat  in  the  gallery  of  the 
church — so  remote,  both  of  them,  that  the  one  appeared 
almost  like  the  other  in  the  dim  region  beyond  my 
present  life.  How  far  distant  from  my  mind  was  the 
thought  that,  on  a  future  day  when  the  years  had  passed 
onward,  there  would  be  a  ceremonial  of  a  similar  nature, 
and  that  I  should  myself  stand  in  the  place  where  I 
now  saw  Dr.  Woolsey — ready  to  assume  the  duties  of 
the  office  which  he  was  taking  upon  himself  and  seeming, 
no  doubt,  to  the  young  student  company  as  old,  and 
perchance  as  grave  and  serious  as  himself.  It  would 
have  been  a  strange  vision  for  me,  indeed,  if  it  could 
have  been  revealed  at  that  hour. 

Dr.  Woolsey,  when  he  became  President  of  the  Col- 
lege, had  held  the  Greek  professorship  for  fifteen  years, 
during  which  period  he  had  served  the  institution  most 
efficiently  as  an  instructor,  and  had  attained  to  a  very 
prominent  position,  if  not  indeed  even  to  the  first  place, 
among  the  Greek  scholars  of  the  country  at  the  time. 
When  President  Day  made  known  his  intention  of  re- 
signing his  office,  a  considerable  section  of  the  Yale 
fraternity  turned  their  thoughts  at  once  towards  the 
Professor  as  a  person  well  fitted  to  succeed  him.  The 
movement  of  the  public  mind  at  first,  however,  as  I 
think,  was  towards  the  elder  Professor  Silliman,  or  Dr. 
Leonard  Bacon,  as  the  most  desirable  and  available  can- 
didate for  the  position.  These  two  gentlemen  had  both 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  them,  though  in  different  ways,  become  conspicuous 
before  the  people  as  men  of  striking  ability  and  men  who 
seemed  to  have  special  adaptation  for  leadership.  It 
was  felt  that  a  man  of  such  an  order  would  be  needed  in 
the  opening  era,  while  retired  scholars  like  Dr.  Woolsey, 
however  able  or  successful  in  their  own  sphere,  could 
hardly  be  expected  to  meet  its  demands.  But  Professor 
Silliman  was  sixty-seven  years  old,  and  some  of  the 
members  of  the  Faculty,  as  well  as  other  friends  of  the 
College,  deemed  it  best  for  the  interests  of  the  institution 
that  a  younger  man  should  be  placed  in  the  office.  With 
reference  to  Dr.  Bacon  on  the  other  hand,  though  he 
was  a  college  classmate  of  Dr.  Woolsey  and  of  the  same 
age,  the  feeling  of  these  gentlemen  in  the  Faculty  and 
of  a  considerable  number  of  the  graduates  was,  that  he 
had  been  too  much  engaged  in  the  controversies  of  the 
time,  and  that  it  was  somewhat  doubtful  whether  he  had 
the  particular  administrative  faculty  that  was  required 
in  the  College.  As  the  months  passed  on,  the  sentiment 
in  favor  of  Dr.  Woolsey  became  more  established  and 
more  general,  and  at  length,  some  time  before  the  matter 
was  finally  decided  by  the  votes  of  the  Corporation,  it 
was  commonly  regarded  as  certain  that  the  result  of  the 
election  would  be  favorable  to  him.  The  college  world 
was  abundantly  satisfied  when  the  result  was  made 
known.  It  was  so,  if  possible,  in  increasing  measure  as 
the  years  of  the  new  President's  official  term  revealed 
yet  more  and  more  clearly  his  eminent  qualifications  for 
the  position. 

So  far  as  Dr.  Woolsey  himself  was  concerned,  vc  is 
evident  that  he  not  only  had  no  special  desire  for  the 
new  office,  but  that  it  was  with  much  hesitation,  and  even 
reluctance,  that  he  consented  to  allow  his  name  to  be 
formally  considered  by  the  Corporation.  A  few  years 
ago  I  saw  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  Professor  Kings- 
ley,  in  which  he  expressed  himself  very  clearly  cm  the 

$3 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

subject.  He  was  in  Europe  during  the  year  preceding 
Dr.  Day's  withdrawal  from  the  Presidency,  and  this 
letter  was  written  from  England  in  reply  to  one  in  which 
Mr.  Kingsley  had  urged  him,  on  behalf  of  his  many 
friends  and  for  the  interests  of  the  College,  not  to  de- 
cline to  be  a  candidate  for  the  position  soon  to  be 
vacated.  Without  refusing  to  yield  to  his  elder  col- 
league's request,  he  set  forth  his  own  feeling  with  much 
earnestness  and  emphasis.  Very  possibly  he  may  have 
had  somewhat  of  the  sensitive  shrinking  of  a  retiring 
scholar,  as  he  looked  towards  the  public  and  administra- 
tive responsibilities  of  the  executive  office.  Not  im- 
probably he  had  a  regretful  indisposition  to  give  up,  in 
considerable  measure,  the  studies  of  the  past  years,  which 
had  so  pleasantly  occupied  his  thoughts  and  so  greatly 
awakened  his  enthusiasm.  Strange  as  it  must  seem  to 
all  who  knew  him,  then  or  afterwards,  there  was  another 
ground  of  his  hesitation — a  feeling  of  doubt  as  to  his 
fitness  for  ordination  to  the  ministry  which,  in  his  judg- 
ment, was  essential  to  his  entrance  upon  the  Presidential 
office.  He  had  the  self-distrust  which  was  characteristic 
of  the  Christian  development  of  the  time,  and  which 
seemed  sometimes  to  be  excessive  in  persons  who  had  the 
least  occasion  for  its  presence  in  their  souls.  Happily, 
however,  his  friends  were  able  so  far  to  satisfy  his  ques- 
tionings and  influence  his  views,  that  he  was  led  to  yield 
to  their  persuasions.  Most  happily — as  all  who  gradu- 
ated during  his  administration  will  unite  in  saying — he 
consented  to  be  ordained,  and  thus  became  a  preacher 
whose  thoughtful  Christian  teaching  will  be  remembered 
by  them  to  the  end  of  their  lives. 

Dr.  Woolsey  brought  with  him  to  his  new  office  the 
high  ideal  of  scholarship  which  he  had  formed  in  earlier 
years,  as  the  result  of  his  studies  in  Europe  before  enter- 
ing upon  his  professorship,  and  of  his  intimate  associa- 
tion with  Professor  Kingsley.  His  mind,  indeed,  was  of 
184 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

such  a  character  that  his  ideals,  in  this  regard,  must  have 
been  high,  had  there  been  less  propitious  influences  in 
his  experience.  He  had,  however,  a  favoring  fortune, 
which  not  only  removed  hindrances,  but  also  added  an 
ever  stimulating  force.  The  entire  College  community 
began  almost  immediately  to  appreciate  the  power  of  a 
freshly  awakening  life.  The  Faculty  and  the  students 
alike  were  conscious  of  a  new  impulse,  and  were  filled 
with  large  hopes  for  the  future.  There  was,  however, 
no  action  of  a  radical  character,  and  no  great  overturn- 
ing, as  if  the  past  should  be  neglected  or  forgotten. 
Neither  was  there  undue  haste  in  the  movement  for 
changes.  It  was  evident  to  every  intelligent  observer 
that  the  advance  was  not  to  be  revolutionary — that  there 
was  to  be  a  legitimate  growth  from  the  development  of 
former  times,  and  that  the  new  was  only  to  be  more 
than  the  old.  I  have  already  referred,  in  another  con- 
nection, to  the  increase  of  work  and  enlargement  of  the 
field  of  study,  in  the  Senior  year,  and  the  consequent 
addition  to  the  value  of  that  year  in  the  education  of  the 
students.  But  the  infusion  of  the  spirit  of  true  learning, 
in  larger  measure,  into  the  entire  community  was  more 
than  any  single  or  special  arrangement  of  the  curriculum, 
in  the  present  benefits  which  it  secured,  as  well  as  in  its 
promise  of  yet  greater  ones  that  should  follow. 

In  his  work  of  instruction,  Dr.  Woolsey  gave  himself, 
at  once,  to  the  departments  of  History  and  Political 
Science,  in  which  comparatively  little  had  been  previously 
done  in  any  part  of  the  College  course.  These  studies 
were,  in  a  more  special  manner,  introduced  into  the 
Senior  year,  and  were  placed  on  an  equal  footing  with 
those  pertaining  to  the  sphere  of  Mental  and  Moral 
Philosophy.  The  exercises  were  mainly  of  the  order  of 
recitations  from  text-books.  The  President,  however, 
added  remarks  and  suggestions  of  his"  own  in  connection 
with,  or  at  times  in  opposition  to,  the  views  and  state- 

185 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

ments  of  the  authors  of  the  books.  He  gave  us  also 
occasional  lectures  in  which,  of  course,  we  had  the  re- 
sults of  his  own  studies  and  thinking.  He  was  somewhat 
impatient  of  the  memoriter  style  of  reciting,  which,  as  I 
have  intimated,  was  characteristic  of  the  time  and  was 
encouraged  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  course.  I  think  he 
was,  for  this  reason,  inclined  to  give  his  approval  to  the 
older  and  more  mature  men  in  his  classes — since  they 
were  likely  to  grasp  the  thoughts  rather  than  the  words 
of  the  books  recited,  and  thus  to  make  more  clearly  mani- 
fest their  understanding  of  what  they  had  learned.  How- 
ever this  may  have  been,  he  taught  us  a  valuable  lesson 
in  this  matter,  for  which  I  may  fitly  record  my  grateful 
acknowledgment  on  these  pages,  as  it  was  for  me,  at 
least,  an  awakening  force  for  my  subsequent  career  as  a 
teacher. 

In  his  lectures  he  was  instructive.  He  could  not  be 
otherwise,  for  his  mind  was  very  rich  in  ideas  and  in 
learning,  and  his  knowledge  was  as  accurate  as  it  was 
extensive.  We  admired  him  for  what  he  knew  and  for 
what  he  thought.  In  my  time,  however, — which  was, 
of  course,  near  the  beginning  of  his  Presidency — he 
crowded  too  much  into  each  lecture,  and  thereby  dimin- 
ished in  some  degree  the  value  of  what  he  gave  us.  He 
gave  more  than  we  were  able  fully  to  make  our  own. 
Had  he  divided  the  matter  of  each  lecture  into  two 
parts,  enlarging  in  the  way  of  detail  and  explanation 
or  illustration  on  the  one  part,  and  reserving  the  other 
for  another  occasion,  the  advantage  gained  by  the  pupils 
would  have  been  greater — even  if  the  necessary  conse- 
quence had  been  an  increase  in  the  number  of  lectures 
and  a  lessening  of  the  hours  devoted  to  recitations. 
Whether  this  characteristic  of  his  lectures  was  equally 
noticeable  at  a  later  period,  I  do  not  know.  Very  prob- 
ably it  was  not  so;  especially  after  he  had  laid  aside  the 
teaching  of  History,  and  given  himself  wholly  to  the 
186 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

sphere  of  Political  Science  and  International  Law.  Yet 
such  was  the  character  of  his  mind  and  his  knowledge, 
that  I  presume  this  feature  of  his  instruction  may  have 
been  manifest,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  in  the  later,  as 
well  as  in  the  earlier  period. 

The  most  powerful  impulse  which  he  gave  us  was  that 
which  came  from  his  personality  as  a  man  of  intellectual 
power  and  as  a  genuine  and  truly  erudite  scholar.  If  I 
may  look  at  myself  as  a  representative  of  my  fellow- 
students,  in  this  regard — and  I  have  confidence  that  I 
may  do  so — I  may  say  that  we  all  felt,  as  we  met  him, 
that  we  were  in  the  presence  of  true  greatness,  and  this 
impression  of  him  has  not,  as  I  think,  passed  away  from 
any  of  us  in  the  years  that  have  carried  us  far  beyond 
the  limits  of  our  college  life.  He  was  a  man  who  never 
seemed  to  me  to  grow  less  in  the  impressiveness  of  his 
intellectual  power,  however  near  I  came  to  him  or  how- 
ever often  I  heard  him  give  forth  his  thoughts. 

In  the  matter  of  social  and  friendly  intercourse  with 
students,  Dr.  Woolsey  was  not  in  my  time,  and  I  think 
that  he  never  was,  accessible  in  the  degree  in  which  Dr. 
Porter  showed  himself  to  be,  both  before  and  after  he 
entered  the  chief  executive  office.  There  was  a  kind  of 
separating  wall  or  fence,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  which  set 
Dr.  Woolsey,  in  this  regard,  within  himself,  and  made 
him  appear  to  others  to  be  a  man  whom  it  was  some- 
what difficult  to  approach.  He  felt  himself  unable  to 
pass  through  or  over  the  barrier,  and  others,  in  turn,  had 
a  similar  feeling  with  reference  to  themselves.  It  seemed 
to  me,  as  I  came  to  know  him  better  in  the  later  years, 
that  he  did  not  appreciate  the  cause  of  the  difficulty,  so 
far  as  others  were  concerned — that,  while  he  clearly  saw 
the  barrier  as  related  to  his  own  outgoing,  he  did  not 
understand  that  there  was  anything  manifest  to  them. 
It  was  thus,  as  I  thought,  a  mysterieus  and  inexplicable 
thing  to  his  mind,  that  there  was  not  the  freedom  of 

187 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

intercourse  between  himself  and  those  about  him,  which 
he  would  have  desired.  The  question  why  they  did  not 
approach  him  easily  was,  accordingly,  one  which  he 
could  not  answer. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  be  associated  with  him  in  the 
work  connected  with  the  Revision  of  the  English  Version 
of  the  Bible  during  the  ten  years  that  immediately  fol- 
lowed the  close  of  his  Presidential  term.  I  often  thought, 
while  those  years  were  passing,  that  they  were  the  hap- 
piest years  of  his  life.  They  were  so  in  part — if  my 
thought  of  him  was  right — because,  in  laying  aside  his 
official  character,  he  had  unconsciously  removed  in  a 
measure  the  barrier  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  thus 
had  opened  the  way  for  the  freedom  desired.  Certainly, 
the  kindly  affection  of  all  moved  readily,  at  that  period, 
through  the  more  widely  open  door,  and  I  could  see  that 
he  rejoiced  in  the  rich  and  happy  experience.  Those  ten 
years  from  seventy  to  eighty,  when  the  infirmity  of  old 
age  had  not  yet  come  upon  him,  were  indeed  a  grand 
period  of  a  scholar's  life,  filled  with  intelligent  activity 
on  his  own  part,  and  with  the  assurance  of  the  reverence 
and  regard  of  all  who  knew  him  or  knew  of  him.  It 
was  a  pleasure  to  witness  the  satisfying  reward  of  his 
life's  work  which  he  had  in  those  years. 

As  the  presiding  officer  in  the  meetings  of  the  Faculty 
during  this  period  of  which  I  am  writing,  1851  to 
1855,  Dr.  Woolsey  was  considerate  of  the  opinions  of 
his  associates,  and  listened  respectfully  to  the  expression 
of  their  views.  His  own  strong  convictions,  however, 
which  generally  made  themselves  manifest,  carried  with 
them  great  weight  of  authority.  He  had  a  clear  insight 
into  the  intricacies  and  difficulties  of  special  cases  as  they 
arose.  He  had,  also,  a  wise  judgment  as  to  what  each 
case  demanded,  which  commonly,  if  not  always,  guided 
him  to  a  right  or  reasonable  decision.  In  the  matter  of 
discipline  he  was  disposed  to  be  strict  and  authoritative, 
r88 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

though  not  so  much  so  at  that  time  as,  according  to  re- 
port, he  had  been  fifteen  or  twenty  years  earlier.  There 
was  a  certain  quickness  of  temper,  characteristic  of  him, 
which  occasionally  made  him  appear  more  rigorous  and 
severe  than  he  really  was  at  heart.  He  had,  also,  a 
peculiar — and  if  I  may  use  the  term  without  being  mis- 
understood, excessive — truthfulness,  which  led  him  not 
to  measure  his  words,  or  conceal  his  feeling,  when  he 
dealt  with  students  who  were  violating  the  laws  or  the 
proprieties  of  the  College  life.  He  had,  like  all  the 
men  of  the  time,  too  much  of  the  idea  that  the  true 
course  to  be  adopted  with  offenders  was  to  remove  them 
at  once  from  the  community.  But  he  was,  beyond  doubt, 
a  wise  administrator  of  the  government,  in  general,  and 
there  were  very  few,  I  think,  in  the  student  body  who 
ever  had  the  feeling  that  he  was  intentionally  unjust  or 
unkind  in  his  dealings  with  them,  even  where  he  had 
occasion  to  inflict  penalties  for  wrongdoing.  The  abso- 
lute honesty  and  sincerity  of  his  character  secured  for 
him  the  highest  respect.  No  one  ever  had  a  suspicion  that 
he  was  influenced,  at  any  time,  by  partiality  or  self- 
interest.  The  whole  company  of  his  pupils  reposed  con- 
fidence in  the  man,  and  they  were  always  ready,  rather 
than  otherwise,  to  give  him  their  approval  in  his  method 
of  administration. 

By  reason  of  his  official  position,  he  had  the  veto 
power  with  reference  to  all  questions  which  arose  for  dis- 
cussion in  the  Faculty  meetings.  This  power  was,  how- 
ever, rarely  exercised,  although  the  existence  of  it  may, 
doubtless,  have  often  had  an  influence  which  proved 
decisive,  and  thus  made  its  actual  use  unnecessary.  The 
possession  of  this  prerogative  on  the  part  of  the  Presi- 
dent is  common  to  all  our  older  institutions  of  learning, 
if  not  indeed  also  to  those  of  more  recent  origin.  I  have 
supposed  that  it  was  so  ordered  at  -first,  because  in  the 
earliest  days  the  President  was  the  only  permanent  officer 
189 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  instruction.  He  was  surrounded  or  assisted  by  a 
small  body  of  teachers  who  held,  and  were  expected  to 
hold,  their  positions  for  a  very  brief  period.  Our  col- 
leges were,  as  Yale  was  called  at  the  beginning,  Collegi- 
ate Schools ;  and  the  President  was  the  Headmaster,  with 
the  entire  responsibility  of  administration  and  govern- 
ment resting — at  least,  in  the  last  resort — upon  himself. 
Certainly,  it  was  reasonable,  not  to  say  essential,  that, 
under  such  circumstances,  he  should  have  this  power 
placed  in  his  hands.  Whether  the  power  should  be  con- 
tinued, as  one  of  the  official  prerogatives  of  the  Presi- 
dent, when  our  colleges  have  become  so  great  in  their  de- 
velopment, and  when  they  have,  or  may  have,  a  hundred 
or  more  professors  whose  relation  to  them  is  as  per- 
manent as  his  own,  is  a  question  which  possibly  may 
hereafter  present  itself  for  discussion.  I  remember  that 
Dr.  Woolsey  himself,  in  his  Historical  Address  pro- 
nounced in  October,  1850,  on  the  one  hundred  and 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the  College, 
went  even  so  far  as  to  suggest  the  thought  that,  after  a 
time,  the  general  sentiment  might  favor  the  setting  aside 
of  the  permanent  Presidential  office,  and  the  substitution 
for  it  of  Rectorships  limited  to  a  brief  period  of  years, 
which  should  be  held,  perchance,  by  different  members 
of  the  professorial  board  in  succession. 

This  latter  suggestion  seems  to  have  met  but  little 
favor  in  any  of  our  institutions  during  the  half-century 
which  has  passed  since  it  was  offered.  So  far  as  I  am 
able  to  look  out  with  anything  like  clearness  upon  the 
future,  I  have  grave  doubts  whether  it  will  ever  be  gen- 
erally adopted  as  a  feature  of  college  organization  in 
our  country.  Indeed,  with  the  great  enlargement  in  the 
number  of  professors  that  we  already  see  in  many  col- 
leges, there  is  a  manifestly  increasing  tendency  on  the 
part  of  individual  officers  to  limit  their  thoughts  and 
energies  to  their  own  special  spheres.  The  need  of  a 
190 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

central  official,  who  has  a  wider  and  an  all-embracing 
survey,  thus  becomes  even  more  emphatic  than  in  the 
days  of  smaller  things  and  less  diversified  interests.  Such 
an  officer  can  be  of  the  greatest  service — at  times,  of  al- 
most incalculable  value — to  the  best  and  largest  life  of 
the  institution.  The  observation  of  years  has,  also,  mainly 
or  wholly  changed  the  feeling  which  I  once  entertained, 
that  the  veto  power  should,  under  modern  conditions, 
be  discontinued  as  a  prerogative  of  the  Presidential 
office.  It  is  a  power  of  great  importance,  especially  in 
serious  emergencies,  and  I  am  disposed  to  believe  that, 
as  our  Faculties  increase  in  numbers,  the  fact  that  it  is 
.held  by  the  President  will  be  most  helpful  in  its  influence 
to  the  end  of  wise  and  reasonable  administration.  In  the 
history  of  our  own  institution  during  the  past  fifty 
years,  this  power  has  been  exercised  only  on  very  rare 
occasions;  and  wherever  the  tendency  of  official  life  in  a 
college  or  university  is  prevailingly,  as  it  has  always 
been  at  Yale,  towards  peace  and  good-will,  there  is  little 
danger  that  it  will  be  pressed  in  its  exercise  beyond  the 
proper  limits.  Certainly,  it  was  not  thus  pressed  during 
the  period  of  President  Woolsey's  administration,  to 
which  I  am  now  referring. 

To  return  to  the  description  of  Dr.  Woolsey  as  a 
man : — in  his  general  appearance  and  physical  form,  he 
is  successfully  represented,  I  think,  in  the  statue  by  Pro- 
fessor Weir  which  was  placed,  in  the  year  1896,  in  front 
of  the  Old  Library  building  on  the  College  grounds. 
His  face,  as  it  is  doubtless  remembered  by  most  of  the 
graduates  who  met  him  in  the  later  years  of  his  Presi- 
dency, is  given  with  reasonable  faithfulness  in  the  por- 
trait by  Baker,  painted  in  1871,  which  hangs  on  the 
walls  of  Alumni  Hall.  There  is,  however,  a  portrait 
by  Jocelyn,  of  the  year  1844,  that  has  been  for  a  long 
period  in  the  official  room  of  the  President  of  the  insti- 
tution, from  the  study  of  which  one  may  gain  a  much 
191 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

more  accurate  idea  of  him  as  he  was  at  the  age  of  forty- 
five  or  fifty.  The  picture  adjoining  this  page  is  copied 
from  it.  It  may  be  hoped  that  this  portrait,  as  well  as 
the  one  previously  mentioned,  will  find  a  permanent 
place  hereafter  in  the  Memorial  building  of  1901.  Dr. 
Woolsey  was  a  man  of  about  five  feet,  ten  or  eleven 
inches,  in  height;  of  slender  build  and  wiry  frame;  hav- 
ing a  high  and  slightly  receding  forehead,  and  an  eye 
of  wonderful  clearness,  penetration,  and  intelligence. 
He  impressed  every  one  who  saw  him — even  those  who 
met  him  for  the  first  time — as  a  man  of  gentlemanly 
birth  and  culture.  He  had  the  stooping  shoulders  which 
suggested  the  idea  of  the  scholar,  and  the  general  bear- 
ing of  one  who  had  lived  in  the  sphere  of  thought  and 
the  higher  learning.  His  step  was  quick,  as  he  walked 
through  the  streets — his  movements  always  indicating 
energy  and  alertness.  Even  until  he  was  nearly  seventy 
years  old,  he  often  ascended  the  stairs  of  the  College 
building,  in  which  he  had  his  office,  after  the  manner  of 
young  students — mounting  two  steps  at  a  single  stride. 
As  he  sat  in  his  chair  in  the  meetings  of  the  Faculty,  he 
was  a  striking  figure,  especially  because  of  the  intellectual 
force  which  was  manifested  in  his  face  and  eyes.  We  all 
felt  that  he  was  the  leader  of  the  company. 

Of  his  intellectual  gifts,  those  which  impressed  me 
most  strongly  were  his  penetrative  insight  into  truth;  his 
thought-power,  reaching  out  very  widely  and  having  in 
itself  a  creative  force;  his  memory  which,  though  not 
phenomenal  like  that  of  Professor  Hadley,  was  extraor- 
dinary, and  extraordinarily  retentive;  his  wit  which, 
while  not  obtrusive  or  even  frequently  manifesting  itself, 
was  of  a  very  high  order;  his  clearness  of  understanding, 
which  rendered  everything  that  he  read  or  learned  com- 
pletely and  permanently  his  own;  and  his  mental 
honesty,  which  made  him  a  true  scholar.  . 

A  similar  honesty  and  sincerity  were  characteristic  of 
192 


PRESIDENT   THEODORE    D.    WOOLSEY 

From  a  portrait  painted  in  1844 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

his  moral  and  spiritual  nature.  No  one  could  doubt  that 
the  outer  life  answered  fully,  and  in  the  most  genuine 
manner,  to  the  life  within  the  man.  The  lesson  of  true 
manhood  was,  accordingly,  one  of  the  most  constant  and 
impressive  lessons  which  he  taught — a  lesson  given  forth 
with  as  much  emphasis  by  his  personality,  in  its  exhibi- 
tion of  itself,  as  by  his  spoken  words  in  his  most  earnest 
teaching.  In  his  spoken  words,  indeed,  there  was  mani- 
fested at  times  what  I  have  called,  in  another  connection, 
an  excess  of  truthfulness — his  sense  of  justice  in  the  ex- 
pression of  his  thought  seeming,  for  the  moment,  to 
overpass  the  fitting  limitations.  Such  overpassing  was, 
no  doubt,  partly  due  to  a  certain  satisfaction  which  he 
felt  in  the  courage  and  boldness  of  his  utterances,  and 
to  a  certain  passionateness  of  judgment,  as  I  may  call  it, 
which  occasionally  displayed  itself  as  pertaining  to  his 
mind.  But  in  the  inner  life  he  was  true  to  himself,  con- 
demning and  excluding  all  that  was  false,  or  seemed  to 
be  more  than  it  was  in  reality,  and  few  men  have  ever, 
in  their  daily  living,  borne  witness  to  the  truth  more 
fully  than  he  did. 

The  sense  of  the  evil — the  exceeding  sinfulness — of 
sin,  and  the  sense  of  justice  in  relation  to  it,  were  so 
strongly  developed  in  his  mind,  that  he  was  led  even  by 
his  religious  thinking  toward  the  governmental  side  of 
life  and  thought.  And  yet  his  heart  moved  easily,  and 
with  great  tenderness,  when  he  saw  the  evidences  in 
others,  who  had  offended  in  any  way,  of  a  regret  for  the 
past  and  a  desire  for  better  things.  The  tender  element 
of  the  religious  life  was  deeply  fixed  in  his  soul,  though 
the  severer  element  was  oftentimes  more  manifest  to  the 
outward  observer.  He  dealt  with  himself  more  strictly 
and  sternly  than  he  did  with  any  one  else  as  the  most 
seriously  thoughtful  and  honest  men  are  wont  to  do,  and 
I  recall  his  expressing  in  my  hearing -his  conviction  of  the 
power  of  Christianity  to  renew  all  souls,  even  the  most 

193 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

sinful,  because  he  felt  that  it  had  had  renewing  force  in 
his  own.  To  such  a  man  the  moral  and  spiritual  educa- 
tion of  young  men  must  have  seemed  the  thing  of  high- 
est importance,  and  when  he  saw  them  wilfully  or  per- 
sistently turning  from  the  right  and  toward  the  wrong, 
it  could  not  be  strange  that  justice  and  the  governmental 
element  should  first  appear  in  him — the  justice  with 
which  he  condemned  all  wrong-doing  that  he  had  seen 
or  thought  of  in  himself. 

Dr.  Woolsey  was  a  man  of  authoritative  character. 
He  had  what  seemed  to  the  student  body  an  imperious 
element  in  his  nature,  which  made  them  stand  in  awe  of 
him,  and  which  gave  to  his  official  utterances,  and  even 
to  his  personal  presence  as  a  college  officer,  a  special 
weight  and  force.  A  few  words  from  him  were  often 
more  effective  than  the  formally  pronounced  or  estab- 
lished rules  of  the  Faculty.  Many  instances  in  the  way 
of  illustration  will,  doubtless,  be  easily  recalled  by  men 
who  were  students  during  his  administration.  One  which 
comes  to  my  mind  was  mentioned  to  me  by  a  member  of 
a  class  that  graduated  about  forty  years  ago.  The  class, 
or  a  large  number  of  its  members,  had  been  planning 
and  arranging  for  a  public  entertainment  of  some  sort 
accompanied  with  dancing,  in  the  success  of  which  much 
interest  was  excited.  As  not  unfrequently  happens  in 
such  cases,  however,  during  the  progress  of  the  prepara- 
tions, the  interest  developed  into  considerable  partisan 
excitement  and  a  consequent  greater  or  less  measure  of 
unfriendly  feeling  between  different  sections  of  men. 
The  excitement  increased  as  the  days  passed  on,  until  the 
final  issue  of  it  became  a  matter  of  conversation  and  of 
questioning.  Without  the  knowledge  of  the  class,  the 
President,  at  a  late  stage  of  the  controversy,  was  made 
aware  of  the  condition  of  things.  He  met  the  emergency 
at  once  in  his  own  mind,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  day 
before  the  entertainment  was  intended  to  be  given — 
194 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

when  all  thoughts  were  eager  with  expectation  and 
doubtful  as  to  a  peaceful  result — he  rose  in  presence  of 
the  assembled  company  of  students,  and  said :  "I  under- 
stand that  a  plan  has  been  formed  by  the  Senior  Class 
for  a  ball  to-morrow  evening,  and  that  much  contention 
has  arisen  in  the  class  respecting  certain  matters  con- 
nected with  it.  There  will  be  no  ball." 

The  question  was  immediately  settled  for  every  mem- 
ber of  the  class,  and  the  excitement  died  away  because  its 
cause  was  removed.  Of  course,  the  effective  power  in 
the  case, — and  in  all  cases  of  a  kindred  sort,  however 
great  seriousness  and  importance  they  might  have, — had 
its  source  and  foundation  in  the  personality  of  the  man. 
Many  men,  by  taking  such  a  course,  would  only  have 
aroused  opposition,  or  even  a  renewed  and  yet  stronger 
determination  in  some  way  to  carry  out  the  original  plan 
and  purpose.  They  would,  through  the  lack  of  the  per- 
sonal element  which  was  in  him,  have  manifested  to  the 
quick  and  penetrative  minds  of  the  youth  before  them 
their  inability  to  make  good  their  word  of  prohibition. 
But  in  him  every  young  man  saw  clearly  the  masterful 
spirit,  and  there  was  little  disposition  to  trifle  with  it,  or 
resist  it.  It  commanded  obedience,  and  not  only  obedi- 
ence but  respect  and  esteem.  In  connection  with  the 
genuine  excellence  and  strength  of  character  and  the  high 
order  of  intellectual  ability,  which  were  universally  rec- 
ognized as  belonging  to  him,  it  awakened  in  the  minds 
of  all  a  sincere  reverence.  This  reverence  grew  in  its 
measure  as  he  advanced  in  years  and  the  separation  be- 
tween his  age  and  that  of  his  pupils  became  wider  and 
more  impressively  manifest,  until  at  length,  in  the  later 
period,  it  turned  into  true  veneration.  It  existed,  how- 
ever, in  the  earliest  time,  to  which  I  am  now  especially 
alluding,  because  the  man  was  what  he  was — a  growing 
man,  and  yet  the  same  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 

I  may  be  pardoned,  I  trust,  if  I  close  what  I  would 

J9S 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

say  of  him  as  connected  with  this  period  of  his  career,  by 
recalling  an  incident  having  a  personal  relation  to  my- 
self. I  have  referred  more  than  once,  on  these  pages,  to 
the  old  ideas  of  college  discipline,  and  to  my  own  con- 
viction, even  from  the  outset  of  my  career,  that  they 
were  radically  wrong.  I  have  also  said  that,  in  common 
with  his  associates  in  the  Faculty  of  that  era,  Dr. 
Woolsey  was  largely  under  the  influence  of  those  ideas. 
Not  long  after  I  had  resigned  my  tutorial  office,  and  had 
begun  a  residence  for  purposes  of  study  in  Germany,  I 
had  occasion  to  address  him  a  letter  on  a  matter  of  pass- 
ing interest.  In  the  course  of  this  letter  I  alluded,  in  a 
side  paragraph  or  two,  to  my  years  of  instruction  just 
closed  at  Yale,  and  said,  that  I  had  sometimes  thought 
that  my  views  of  college  government  might  not  have 
met  his  approval,  or  might  even  have  seemed  to  him  to 
be  of  a  subversive  order;  but  that,  if  so,  he  might  be 
assured  that  I  had  advanced  them,  or  advocated  them, 
with  no  wish  to  make  any  undue  opposition  to  him  or  his 
opinions,  but  simply  because  I  felt  that  the  system  then 
established  might  be  changed  with  advantage  to  the 
highest  interests  of  the  institution.  In  his  reply  to  my 
letter — after  giving  an  answer  relating  to  its  main  sub- 
ject— he  referred  to  what  I  had  written  on  this  second- 
ary matter,  and  said,  "While  I  cannot  deny  that  I  have 
sometimes  felt  that  what  you  contended  for  would,  if 
adopted,  be  injurious  to  discipline,  and  would  tend  to 
destroy  our  long-established  system  which  I  regard  as  a 
wise  one,  I  am  free  to  confess  that  I  have  been  greatly 
impressed  with  the  influence  which  you  have  gained  over 
students  in  the  carrying  out  of  your  views — an  influence 
which  I  wish  that  all  college  officers  might  have.  I  may 
add  that — so  far  is  my  feeling  from  that  which  you  sug- 
gest as  having  possibly  been  in  my  mind — I  would  be 
glad  to  have  you  permanently  connected  with  the  Col- 
lege— what  can  I  say  more?"  Whether  my  views  were 
196 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

right  or  not,  he  was  certainly  not  immovably  fixed  and 
fettered  in  his  own.  He  was  a  large-minded  man,  and 
was  worthy  of  the  office  which  he  held,  not  only  by  rea- 
son of  his  other  powers  and  characteristics,  but  because 
he  looked  toward  the  future  and  was  hopeful  with  refer- 
ence to  it — because,  with  firm  and  strong  convictions, 
and  vigorous  and  commanding  will,  he  was,  at  the  same 
time,  generously  responsive  to  what  others  thought  and 
kindly  in  his  estimate  of  their  purpose  and  their  efforts. 

Such,  in  some  imperfect  and  half-satisfactory  descrip- 
tion of  them  as  they  appeared  to  me  in  those  bygone 
days,  were  the  more  permanent  members  of  the  Academ- 
ical Faculty,  who  met  together  as  a  body  from  week  to 
week  in  the  years  1851  to  1855,  and  administered  the 
affairs  of  the  institution.  The  older  ones  among  them, 
together  with  Dr.  Fitch,  the  College  preacher  until 
1852,  and  the  Professors  in  the  Theological  School,  were 
a  little  company  of  friends  and  neighbors  whose  lives 
had  been  in  very  close  union  for  many  years.  They  were 
almost  like  brothers  of  a  common  household,  who  had 
established  themselves  with  their  families  around  their 
ancestral  home.  They  knew  one  another  with  perfect 
intimacy.  The  one  great  interest  which  they  had  in 
common  united  them  not  only  in  their  work,  but  in  their 
hearts.  There  were  no  ambitions,  or  jealousies,  or 
divisive  influences,  to  part  them  asunder,  or  in  any  way 
to  prevent  complete  harmony  in  their  plans  or  their 
efforts.  Each  one  of  their  number  was  conscious  that 
he  had  given  himself  from  the  outset  to  the  service  of  the 
institution  with  a  spirit  of  consecration  kindred  to  that 
which  inspired  him  in  relation  to  those  within  the  circle 
of  his  own  home.  Each  one  had,  if  I  may  use  the  word, 
a  similar  consciousness  with  reference  to  all  the  rest. 
They  visited  each  other  after  the  old  New  England 
197 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

fashion,  and  knew  each  other's  children  almost  as  famil- 
iarly  as  they  knew  their  own.  In  their  studies  they  dif- 
fered, indeed,  but  this  difference,  inasmuch  as  they  were 
all  contributing  to  the  common  end  and  purpose  of  the 
College  life,  seemed  in  itself  to  have  a  tendency  to  render 
them  more  truly  and  entirely  one. 

Everything  also  in  the  special  detail  of  their  relation 
to  the  College  and  its  condition  had  the  same  tendency. 
The  arrangement  of  the  curriculum  was  such  that  each 
one  of  the  Academical  Professors  was  brought  into  per- 
sonal connection  with  every  student,  as  his  instructor, 
during  some  portion  of  his  undergraduate  course.  The 
Professors  therefore  had,  all  of  them,  a  certain  measure 
of  acquaintance  with  the  entire  student  body.  They 
were  able  to  get  some  understanding  of  the  character, 
the  gifts  and  capacities,  the  present  needs,  and  the  prom- 
ise for  the  future,  of  the  individual  men  who  were  under 
their  care.  The  comparatively  limited  numbers  in  the 
classes  rendered  such  acquaintance  and  understanding 
possible,  in  a  degree  which  could  not  have  been  realized 
under  other  circumstances.  The  classes  were  not  too 
large  for  so  small  a  number  of  teachers. 

I  would  not  be  understood  as  affirming  that  every  Pro- 
fessor knew  every  student  well  or,  in  any  sense,  inti- 
mately. I  would  not  say  that,  in  the  case  of  some  of  the 
professors,  there  was  even  a  general  acquaintance  with 
the  classes,  of  such  a  nature  that  they  had  an  abiding  or 
satisfactory  impression  as  to  the  characteristics  of  many 
of  the  individual  members.  The  professors,  for  ex- 
ample, who  met  the  students  only  or  mainly  as  lecturers, 
were  afforded  comparatively  little  opportunity  to  gain 
such  impressions.  But,  notwithstanding  these  limita- 
tions, the  order  of  the  College  life  and  instruction  was 
fitted  to  give  the  entire  Faculty  an  appreciation  of  the 
young  men — their  intellectual  standing,  their  attain- 
ments, their  worthiness,  and  their  needs.  The  members 

198 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  the  Faculty  could  thus  easily  co-operate  with  one  an- 
other, and  the  influences  which  came  upon  them  from  the 
fact  that  they  were  each  and  all  working  for  the  same 
pupils,  and  doing  their  part  to  make  them  educated  men, 
were  of  much  force  in  binding  them  together  in  friendly 
harmony. 

There  was  another  uniting  force  which  contributed 
greatly  to  the  same  end.  The  College,  though  small  in 
comparison  with  what  it  became  in  subsequent  years,  and 
especially  with  what  it  has  grown  to  be  at  the  present 
time,  was  large,  and  even  very  large,  as  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  its  financial  resources.  To  one  who,  like 
myself,  is  able  to  look  back  over  the  half-century  which 
has  come  to  its  end,  and  whose  boyhood  could  gather 
within  itself  some  knowledge  of  even  earlier  years,  it 
seems  marvelous  indeed  that  the  men  of  that  former  time 
could  have  accomplished  what  they  did,  or  that  they 
could  have  had  the  heart  and  courage  to  press  forward, 
with  their  very  limited  and  inadequate  means,  in  the  great 
and  ever-enlarging  work  to  which  they  were  called.  But 
as  they  had  the  self-devotion  and  the  faith  which  inspired 
them  to  move  on,  notwithstanding  all  difficulties  and 
hindrances,  we  may  readily  see  how  the  very  limitation 
of  their  resources,  and  the  consequent  hardness  of  the 
struggle  for  each  and  every  one  of  them,  became  for 
them  all  alike  a  power  in  the  inmost  life,  ever  binding 
them  closely  together  and  ever  impelling  them  to  put 
forth  their  energies  as  one  man  of  sevenfold  force  for 
the  upbuilding  of  the  institution  which  they  loved.  They 
were  no  hired  servants,  ready  to  labor  for  a  time,  if  all 
should  go  well,  but  open  to  a  call  for  easier,  or  more 
agreeable  or  remunerative  service  elsewhere,  whenever 
it  might  come  to  their  hearing.  They  were  sons  of  the 
old  and  honored  household,  who  gave  themselves  in 
gratitude  and  love  to  the  grand  duty  of  making  the 
home  larger  and  better,  more  fitted  to  bestow  blessing 
199 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

upon  all  who  should  come  to  it  and  more  noble  and 
beautiful  in  all  its  life.  Their  service,  as  they  felt  in 
their  deepest  souls,  was  a  life-long  service.  Whether  it 
should  be  rewarded  according  to  the  measure  of  its 
merits,  or  not,  was  a  question  of  secondary  importance — 
even  of  insignificant  moment.  The  one  all-controlling 
thought  in  their  minds  was  that  of  the  upbuilding  of 
Yale.  If  pecuniary  reward  could  come  to  them  as  the 
greater  work  was  going  forward,  they  would  be  grateful 
and  rejoice.  If  it  should  not  be  granted  them,  they 
would  be  patient  and  satisfied,  provided  only  that  the 
College  which  they  loved  was  growing  towards  the  full- 
ness that  filled  the  bright  vision  of  their  hope. 

When  I  bring  before  my  mind  the  fact  that  the  total 
income  of  the  Academical  Department,  at  the  time  of 
my  graduation  in  1849,  was  less  than  thirty-four  thou- 
sand dollars  and,  apart  from  the  term  bills  paid  by  stu- 
dents, was  not  more  than  sixteen  thousand — and  when  I 
find,  by  the  records,  that  in  1831,  the  year  in  which  Dr. 
Woolsey  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  Professorship, 
the  sum  of  the  permanent  funds  of  the  Department,  after 
deducting  debts  that  were  owed,  was  scarcely  equal  to 
the  second  of  the  two  amounts  just  mentioned — I  can 
only  wonder  at  the  unfailing  courage  and  self-devotion 
of  this  brotherhood  of  men.  I  can  only  render  them 
honor,  and  express  my  admiration  for  them.  We  of  the 
later  period  have  witnessed  much  greater  things,  and 
have  accomplished  perchance  what,  as  measured  by  its 
mere  magnitude,  is  far  beyond  anything  that  was  real- 
ized, or  even  supposed  possible,  by  them.  But  may  it 
not  fitly  seem  to  us,  when  we  think  of  their  era  and  their 
heroism,  that  theirs  was  a  grander  work,  and  may  we 
not  rightly  feel  that  the  history  of  our  University,  as  it 
moves  onward  through  the  future,  can  have  no  brighter 
page  than  that  which  faithfully  recounts  the  service  and 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

efforts  of  those  who  were  builders  of  its  walls  and  guard- 
ians of  its  life  in  the  earlier  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury? As  one  of  the  men  who  followed  them  in  the 
later  portion  of  the  century,  and  one  who  entered  in 
some  measure  into  their  labors,  I  would  give  expression 
most  gladly  to  my  recognition  of  the  inspiring  influence 
which  they  passed  on  to  their  successors.  If  we,  of  the 
fifty  years  just  now  ended,  have  had  within  us,  or  have 
manifested  to  others,  anything  of  the  spirit  of  unselfish 
and  undying  consecration  to  the  interests  and  welfare  of 
Yale,  we  may,  as  we  think  of  ourselves  or  of  the  work 
which  we  have  brought  to  its  accomplishment,  grate- 
fully acknowledge  the  inheritance  which  came  to  us  from 
these  older  men. 


XII. 

Other  Instructors,  and  Tutors;  and  Some  Matters  of 
College  Life,  1851-55. 

AMONG  the  old  College  teachers  of  my  under- 
graduate days,  and  of  the  years  to  which  I  am 
now  referring,  there  were  three  who  had  more 
or  less  connection  with  the  students,  but  were  not  mem- 
bers of  the  Faculty.  One  of  these  was  Mr.  Robert 
Bakewell,  the  Instructor  in  Drawing  and  Perspective — 
an  English  gentleman  who  came  to  this  country  about 
the  year  1830,  and  established  his  residence  soon  after- 
wards in  New  Haven.  When  I  became  acquainted  with 
him,  after  my  college  graduation,  he  must  have  been 
between  fifty  and  sixty  years  of  age,  and  he  had  held  his 
office  as  instructor  for  nearly  twenty  years.  He  was  a 
man  of  cultured  manners,  of  very  sweet  and  kindly  dis- 
position, of  gentle  and  charming  nature,  of  transparent 
purity  of  character,  of  the  most  sincere  and  simple  Chris- 
tian faith.  His  genuine  artistic  taste  influenced  and  af- 
fected his  mind  and  manhood  in  every  part. 

At  that  time  there  was  comparatively  little  interest 
among  the  students  in  the  subject  of  Art.  Indeed,  there 
were  few  persons  in  the  country  who  appreciated  the 
value  of  art,  in  any  true  measure,  as  a  branch  or  de- 
partment of  education.  The  expediency  or  wisdom  of 
connecting  an  Art  School  with  the  University  was  ques- 
tioned by  very  many  of  the  friends,  and  even  of  the 
officers  of  the  institution,  as  late  as  the  year  1865,  when 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Augustus  R.  Street  proposed  to  erect  the 
Art  Building  and  establish  the  school.  Mr.  Bakewell, 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

whose  work  of  instruction  had  ended  some  years  before 
that  date,  had  of  course  only  a  small  number  of  pupils 
at  any  period  of  his  career.  For  those  who  sought  his 
aid  and  guidance,  however,  he  was  a  faithful,  as  well  as 
useful  teacher,  while  to  all  who  knew  him  he  manifested 
the  spirit  of  a  true  gentleman,  having  in  himself  the 
refining  influences  of  his  art  studies.  He  was  an  intimate 
acquaintance  and  friend  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Street,  who 
were  in  all  their  life  greatly  devoted  to  art,  and  I  think 
that  his  association  and  conferences  with  them  may  have 
been  a  force,  co-operating  with  many  other  forces,  in  in- 
ducing them  to  make  their  great  and  most  valuable  gift 
to  the  University.  Be  this  as  it  may,  he  was  the  first 
of  the  teachers  in  the  field  of  Art  at  Yale;  and  though 
he  did  not  move  in  the  highest  sphere  of  the  artist,  he 
may  be  fitly  remembered  because  of  his  true  and  earnest 
working  in  the  early  days,  even  as  he  will  be  held  in 
memory,  by  those  who  knew  his  pure  and  simple  life,  as 
a  man  of  Christ-like  spirit. 

The  second  of  the  three  men  referred  to  was  Dr. 
Erasmus  D.  North,  the  Instructor  in  Elocution  in  the 
College  from  1837  to  1854.  Dr.  North  was  a  graduate 
in  Arts  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  of  the  year 
1826,  and  in  Medicine  of  the  Yale  Medical  School,  of 
the  year  1833.  ^e  was  a  g°°d  elocutionist.  As  a 
teacher  he  had  sound  ideas  and  theories,  and  devoted 
himself  honestly  to  his  work.  By  reason  of  a  certain 
weakness  in  the  power  of  discipline,  however,  he  failed 
to  gain  full  control  over  his  students.  Consequently,  he 
was  not  able  to  do  for  them  what  he  might  otherwise 
have  done.  It  was  unfortunate  for  his  success,  also, 
that  he  was  not  a  member  of  the  Faculty.  The  students 
recognized  the  distinction  between  his  position  and  that 
of  their  other  teachers,  and  they  took  advantage  of  him, 
if  the  expression  may  be  permitted,  as  young  boys  are 
apt  to  do  of  their  instructors  when  circumstances  allow 
203 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

it.  It  was  a  rhetorical  age,  indeed,  as  compared  with  the 
present — that  period  in  which  he  served  the  institution. 
But  college  boys  were,  nevertheless,  not  very  much  dis- 
posed to  give  themselves  to  the  regularly  appointed  elo- 
cutionary exercises.  Especially  when  a  large  company 
or  nearly  a  whole  class  came  together  for  these  exercises, 
as  was  often  the  case,  the  tendency  to  inattention,  or  to 
disorderly  conduct  of  a  minor  sort,  was  likely  to  manifest 
itself;  and  the  teacher  who  could  not  restrain  it  by  his 
masterful  force,  found  himself  many  times  in  a  more  or 
less  unhappy  condition.  The  students  had  no  unkindly 
feeling  towards  the  worthy  Doctor,  I  think.  They  were 
only  mischievous  youths,  who  entertained  themselves 
with  a  little,  or  with  considerable,  by-play  while  he  was 
listening  to  the  oratorical  efforts  of  their  fellows,  or 
offering  his  criticisms. 

This  state  of  things  occasionally  disturbed  the  equa- 
nimity of  Professor  Larned,  who  had  the  general  charge 
of  the  rhetorical  department,  and  at  rare  intervals  he 
made  known  his  feeling  to  his  associates  in  the  Faculty. 
But  Dr.  North  was  very  sensitive — as  most  instructors 
are — with  reference  to  any  outside  interference  with  his 
exercises.  He  felt  himself  quite  as  adequate  to  arrange 
and  manage  them  properly  as  the  Professor  was  or  could 
be,  and,  as  I  recall  those  days,  I  cannot  but  think  that  he 
was  more  nearly  correct  in  his  judgment  than  some  of  the 
Faculty  may  have  been  disposed  to  admit.  On  one  occa- 
sion, when  the  Professor  addressed  him  a  formal  note, 
proposing  himself  to  attend  the  exercises  for  the  purpose 
of  maintaining  perfect  order,  the  Doctor  appealed 
to  the  President.  After  intimating  that  no  one  of  the 
professors,  as  he  believed,  was  more  successful  in  man- 
aging students  than  himself,  he  suddenly  rose  into  the 
rhetorical  style,  and  said  that  "all  that  he  wished  was 
to  be  treated  by  the  Faculty  with  respect  as  a  man,  a 
citizen,  and  the  father  of  a  family."  It  was  difficult  to 
204 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

resist  this  appeal,  and  he  remained  in  his  position  undis- 
turbed until  the  year  1854,  when  he  offered  his  resigna- 
tion. He  died  four  years  later,  in  1858. 

Dr.  North  was  a  man  of  wide  reading  and  of  much 
interest  in  science.  He  was  a  somewhat  intimate  friend 
of  the  poet  Percival,  who  had  his  residence  in  New 
Haven  during  the  years  of  my  undergraduate  course 
and  of  my  official  life  as  a  tutor.  Percival  was  a  person 
of  very  peculiar  character,  having  idiosyncracies  of  a 
most  eccentric  order.  But  as  a  poet  and  a  scientist  he 
had  much  prominence  and  wide  reputation.  I  can  recall 
his  appearance  very  distinctly,  as  he  now  and  then  pre- 
sented himself  on  the  College  grounds,  arrayed  in  his 
long  brown  cloak — brown  by  reason  of  age,  but  possibly 
of  another  color  originally — and  having  an  outlandish 
looking  cap  on  his  head,  and  a  weather-beaten  umbrella 
in  his  hand.  He  seemed  anything  but  a  scholar  and  a 
poet.  The  most  eccentric  and  careless  German  professor 
could  hardly  be  placed  in  comparison  with  him.  He  was 
self-withdrawing,  and  moody  also,  with  much  of  the 
disposition  of  a  hermit.  When  he  erected  a  house  for 
himself  at  some  distance  from  the  center  of  the  city,  he 
placed  the  only  door  of  entrance  on  the  rear  of  the 
building,  as  an  indication  that  he  did  not  desire  to  receive 
visitors.  Seclusion  and  privacy  seemed  to  be  the  satis- 
faction of  life  for  him.  And  yet  there  was  a  small  circle 
of  friends  to  whom  he  opened  himself;  and  when  he  was 
with  any  of  those  who  were  within  its  limits,  he  talked 
with  the  utmost  freedom  and  at  interminable  length.  Dr. 
North  was  one  of  this  circle  of  friends,  and  it  is  related 
that,  on  a  certain  evening,  the  two  men  met  each  other 
on  the  street,  by  chance,  and  fell  into  a  conversation  on 
some  topic  which  was  interesting  to  both  of  them.  They 
moved  on  and  on  in  their  talk  together,  wholly  oblivious 
of  the  lapse  of  time,  until  their  attention  was  arrested 
by  what  seemed  a  strange  light  in  the  eastern  sky.  At 
205 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

once,  they  began  to  speculate  as  to  what  it  could  be,  yet 
with  no  satisfactory  result.  But  while  their  questioning 
and  uncertainty  continued,  the  sun  lifted  his  light  upon 
them ;  and  lo,  the  night  had  passed,  and  the  new  day  had 
come. 

There  was  something  evidently  in  the  good  Doctor 
which  the  poet  saw,  but  which  was  hidden  from  the  eyes 
and  minds  of  the  young  fellows  who  spoke  their  pieces 
before  him,  or  played  while  others  were  speaking  theirs. 
There  was  something  which,  as  I  cannot  doubt,  seemed 
more  edifying  to  his  own  mind  and  soul,  during  the  four 
years  of  life  that  followed  his  withdrawal  from  his 
teaching  work,  than  any  of  his  efforts  to  create  orators 
out  of  college  students,  or  to  keep  them  in  order  while 
he  was  trying  to  make  them  what  he,  and  perchance 
they  also,  desired  that  they  might  become. 

Luigi  Roberti,  the  third  of  the  three  gentlemen,  was 
the  Instructor  in  French  and  Italian.  His  connection 
with  the  College,  however,  was  a  rather  loose  one,  as 
he  only  gave  instruction  to  optional  classes  during  a  sin- 
gle term  in  the  Junior  and  Senior  years.  He  was  a  very 
worthy  and  intelligent  man,  and  became  in  later  years  a 
successful  teacher  of  a  young  ladies'  school,  which  gained 
for  itself  considerable  reputation.  But  he  had  little  op- 
portunity to  accomplish  satisfactory  results  within  the 
brief  period  allowed  for  his  studies  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  curriculum.  The  students,  moreover,  did  not  re- 
gard the  exercises  in  French  and  Italian  with  any  con- 
siderable measure  of  serious  interest.  The  larger  part  of 
those  who  made  choice  of  these  studies,  particularly  of 
French,  did  so  because  they  felt  that  they  could  meet  the 
demands  of  the  exercises  with  comparatively  little  effort. 
Sometimes  they  found  themselves  able  to  obtain  excuses 
for  absence  from  the  recitations  without  much  difficulty, 
and  they  gave  themselves,  in  consequence,  large  in- 
dulgence in  this  regard.  The  instructors,  who  were  of 
206 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

foreign  birth  and  education,  did  not  in  those  days  easily 
understand  and  appreciate  American  college  pupils,  and 
occasionally — as  in  the  case  of  one  such  teacher  near  the 
period  of  my  tutorship — in  a  kind  of  despair,  or  possibly 
in  an  excess  of  amiability,  they  even  co-operated  with 
students  in  their  attempts  to  pass  very  easily  through 
the  course  of  study  assigned  for  them.  This  particular 
teacher  is  said  to  have  excused  several  members  of  one 
of  his  classes  from  nearly  all  the  exercises  of  a  term — 
giving  them  permission  to  be  absent  until  the  time  of 
the  final  examination,  when  he  promised  to  treat  them 
as  leniently  as  possible.  Not  improbably,  he  may  have 
been  disquieted  or  harassed  by  their  presence  in  the  early 
days  of  the  session,  and,  realizing  his  inability  to  meet 
the  emergencies  of  the  case  if  their  continued  attendance 
were  required,  may  have  felt  that  a  formal  release  from 
all  such  obligation  would  be  the  lesser  evil  of  the  two. 

However  this  may  have  been,  and  whatever  may  be 
said  by  way  of  comment,  it  is  evident  that  the  era  of 
modern  languages  in  our  American  colleges  had  not  as 
yet  arrived.  As  Dr.  Andrew  P.  Peabody  said  of  one  of 
the  estimable  French  instructors  at  Harvard  College 
twenty  years  earlier:  "It  was  probably  never  known  how 
good  a  teacher  he  could  have  been,  if  he  had  had  teach- 
able pupils.  His  French  classes  were  large,  but  were 
composed  mainly  of  students  who  sought  amusement 
rather  than  instruction,  and  whose  chief  aim  was  to  im- 
pose on  his  long-suffering  good  nature."  The  fathers 
of  that  period,  and  their  young  sons,  had  comparatively 
little  apprehension  of  the  value  of  these  languages  as 
bearing  upon  the  education  of  college  men — even  as 
they  had  little  understanding  of  the  value  of  art.  But 
happily,  as  the  sons  grew  in  their  turn  to  the  age  of  the 
fathers,  the  thought  of  the  new  era  came  to  them,  and 
they  began  to  appreciate  the  worth,  for  those  who  were 
following  after  them,  of  what  they  had  not  realized  to 
207 


MEMORIES    OF    YALE    LIFE    AND    MEN 

be  valuable  for  themselves.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  in 
our  college  history,  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Street,  whose 
generosity  established  our  School  of  the  Fine  Arts,  were 
the  founders  also  of  the  first  endowed  professorship  in 
the  department  of  Modern  Languages. 

Of  the  company  of  tutors  whose  terms  of  office  were 
partly  coincident  with  my  own — eighteen  in  all — thirteen 
have  died,  and  five  are  still  living.  Among  those  that 
have  died,  the  two  who  attained  the  highest  prominence 
were  Hubert  A.  Newton,  of  the  class  of  1850,  and 
Franklin  W.  Fisk,  of  my  own  class.  With  reference  to 
Mr.  Newton,  who  afterwards  filled  the  professorship  of 
mathematics  in  the  College,  I  shall  write  more  fully  on  a 
later  page.  Mr.  Fisk  was  one  of  the  oldest  of  my  class- 
mates, and  nearly  nine  years  older  than  myself.  He  had 
prepared  himself  for  entrance  into  the  College  in  1837, 
but  had  subsequently  given  himself  for  a  series  of  years 
to  the  work  of  teaching  in  the  schools.  He  stood,  there- 
fore on  a  different  level  as  compared  with  most  of  our 
number,  when  we  came  together  in  the  membership  of 
the  Freshman  class.  Indeed,  as  I  recently  learned,  he 
was  a  fellow-student,  and  of  the  same  rank  in  the  school 
calendar,  at  Phillips  Andover  Academy,  with  our  Tutor 
Emerson,  of  whom  I  have  already  made  mention.  The 
two  had  separated  on  leaving  Andover,  and  now,  after 
an  interval  of  eight  years,  they  met  again — the  one  as  a 
just-entering  Freshman,  and  the  other,  as  we  boys 
thought,  a  dignified  and  self-conscious  tutor.  Moreover, 
as  chance  or  fate  would  have  it,  my  friend  Fisk  was 
placed  in  the  section  of  the  class  of  which  Mr.  Emerson 
had  particular  charge.  The  latter  was,  therefore,  in 
relation  to  the  former,  the  special  representative  of  the 
idea  of  the  time — that  the  College  government  stood 
in  loco  parentis  for  each  and  every  student  during  his 
undergraduate  career.  It  must  have  been  a  strange 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

experience  for  my  good  friend.  He  must,  as  it  would 
seem,  have  had  a  feeling,  now  and  then,  half-way  rebel- 
lious and  half-way  diverting — a  sort  of  mingled  frown 
and  smile,  as  it  were,  upon  his  face — as  he  thought  of 
the  old  days  and  the  new.  But  he  never  whispered  his 
thought  or  feeling  to  me,  or  to  any  one.  Possibly  the 
lesson  of  the  schoolmaster's  life  in  those  years  had  im- 
pressed upon  him  not  only  the  duty  but,  for  good  order, 
the  necessity  of  respect  for  "  the  powers  that  be,"  and 
so  he  was  content  to  place  himself  on  the  same  footing 
with  his  young  associates  and  to  set  them  an  example  of 
propriety.  But — the  question  comes  to  my  mind,  and  I 
record  it  here  for  the  reader  to  answer  as  he  may — did 
not  the  two  gentlemen,  when  they  were  united  as  pro- 
fessors in  the  same  institution  in  the  Northwest  a  few 
years  afterwards,  occasionally  refer  in  their  talks  with 
each  other  to  the  strange  relation  of  the  old  college 
days?  And  if  so,  did  not  the  frowns  of  authority  on  the 
one  side,  and  a  half-way  insubordination  on  the  other, 
become  changed  for  both  into  smiles  which  gradually 
grew  into  a  genuine  boyish  laughter? 

But  all  this  pertains  in  reality  to  our  undergraduate 
life,  and  I  am  now  writing  of  my  fellow-tutors.  After 
holding  his  office  for  one  or  two  years,  Mr.  Fisk  left 
Yale,  and  completed  a  course  of  study  in  preparation  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry.  In  1854,  however,  he  received 
a  call  to  the  professorship  of  Rhetoric  and  English  Litera- 
ture in  Beloit  College,  Wisconsin.  This  call  he  accepted. 
He  held  the  professorship  for  five  years,  and  during  this 
peiod  he  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  institution.  In 
1859  he  began  what  may  be  regarded  as  his  life-work,  as 
Professor  of  Sacred  Rhetoric  in  the  Chicago  Theological 
Seminary.  For  thirty-one  years  he  consecrated  himself 
to  the  upbuilding  and  enlarging  of  that  school  of  the- 
ology. His  thoughts  and  his  efforts  were  constantly  de- 
voted to  the  promotion  of  its  interests,  and  I  am  sure 
209 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

that  no  one  of  the  honored  men  who  labored  for  its 
welfare  throughout  those  years  was  more  faithful  to  the 
cause  or  more  helpful  towards  the  realization  of  results. 
He  was  most  highly  esteemed  by  his  fellow-citizens  and 
by  all  who  knew  him.  A  welcome  was  given  him  in  the 
churches,  wherever  he  preached.  He  won  the  regard 
and  friendly  sentiment  of  his  students.  The  appoint- 
ment to  the  Presidency  of  the  Seminary,  which  he  re- 
ceived, carried  with  itself  the  highest  testimonial  that 
could  be  given  by  the  trustees,  as  manifesting  their  con- 
fidence and  respect.  The  influence  exerted  by  him  in 
the  whole  region  of  the  country  where  his  life  was  passed 
will  be  permanent  and  wide-reaching,  as  it  is  continued 
through  others  to  whom  he  gave  inspiration  for  their 
work. 

At  the  close  of  the  seminary  year  in  April,  1900,  he 
retired  from  the  duties  of  his  office,  but  in  accordance 
with  the  request  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  he  retained 
his  connection  with  the  institution  as  President  Emeritus. 
He  had,  at  that  time,  just  passed  beyond  his  eightieth 
birthday.  Not  many  months  later  his  health,  which  had 
been  vigorous  in  a  remarkable  degree  throughout  his 
mature  life,  became  impaired.  Recovery  proved  to  be 
hopeless,  and  on  the  4th  of  July,  1901,  he  died.  He 
was  a  warm-hearted  friend  of  mine  from  the  college 
days  to  the  end,  as  he  was  of  all  his  classmates.  They 
all  looked  upon  him  as  one  of  the  chief  men  of  the 
company. 

Henry  Hamilton  Hadley,  who  was  commonly  known 
among  us  as  the  younger  Hadley,  was  called  after  he  had 
left  the  tutorial  office  to  an  instructorship,  and  a  few 
years  later  to  a  professorship  of  Hebrew,  in  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  in  the  city  of  New  York.  For  a 
single  year  he  discharged  the  duties  of  a  professor  in  our 
Divinity  School,  but  he  did  not  at  that  time  sever  his 
connection  with  the  New  York  institution  altogether, 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

nnd  his  whole  scholarly  work  may  therefore  be  properly 
said  to  have  been  accomplished  in  that  seminary.  It  was 
a  work  which  was  highly  appreciated  by  the  students 
in  the  membership  of  his  classes.  He  was  a  scholar  of  a 
high  order  and  of  great  promise,  and  much  was  antici- 
pated from  him  and  for  him,  but  to  the  regret  and  grief 
of  his  many  friends  the  hopes  which  had  been  cherished 
failed  of  their  realization  by  reason  of  his  early  death. 
His  life  came  to  its  end,  as  the  result  of  a  disease  con- 
tracted while  he  was  on  a  temporary  service  with  the 
army  on  behalf  of  the  Christian  Commission,  in  the 
summer  of  1864,  when  he  was  only  thirty-eight  years 
of  age. 

James  B.  Miles,  a  classmate  of  mine,  who  died  in 
1875,  filled,  for  a  period  of  nearly  seventeen  years,  the 
pastoral  office  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in 
Charlestown,  Mass.  During  the  last  four  years  of  his 
life  he  was  the  Secretary  of  the  American  Peace  Society. 
He  held  this  position  at  a  time  when  the  Society  was 
especially  active  in  connection  with  organizations  in 
European  countries  which  had  the  same  object  in  view, 
and  as  a  consequence  he  spent  a  large  portion  of  his 
time  in  those  countries.  Very  few  graduates  of  Yale 
within  the  century,  as  I  think,  have  been  brought  into 
connection  with  a  larger  number  of  eminent  Europeans 
— men  distinguished  whether  by  ability  or  by  official 
position — than  was  Dr.  Miles  in  those  years. 

Fisk  P.  Brewer  and  Evan  W.  Evans,  the  latter  of  the 
Class  of  1851,  and  the  former  of  that  of  1852,  became 
professors  in  different  collegiate  institutions.  Mr. 
Brewer  occupied  chairs  of  instruction  successively  in  the 
universities  of  North  Carolina  and  of  South  Carolina, 
and  in  Iowa  College.  Mr.  Evans  held  a  professorship 
in  Marietta  College,  and  subsequently  a  similar  position 
at  Cornell  University.  They  were  genuine  scholars;  the 
former  especially  in  the  line  of  classical  studies,  and  the 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

latter  in  the  departments  of  Mathematics  and  of  Natural 
Philosophy  and  Astronomy.  Professor  Evans  attained  a 
higher  than  ordinary  reputation. 

Of  the  others,  Joseph  Hurlbut,  of  my  own  class,  and 
Francis  L.  Hodges,  of  the  Class  of  1847,  died  so  early 
in  life  that  the  work  for  which  they  were  preparing  in 
their  thoughts  or  hopes  could  not  open  to  them,  even  in 
its  beginnings.  William  Kinne,  of  the  Class  of  1848, 
was  a  successful  school  teacher  for  a  long  period  until, 
in  advanced  life,  he  retired  to  a  quiet  residence  in  his 
native  village.  Dr.  Lebbeus  C.  Chapin  (1852),  after 
leaving  the  College,  devoted  himself  to  the  work  of  the 
medical  profession  in  Michigan.  Rev.  William  Pope 
Aiken  (1853),  was  an  honored  and  useful  minister  in 
Rutland,  Vt.  Rev.  Thomas  S.  Potwin  (1851)  gave 
himself  to  the  clerical  profession  for  a  long  period,  but 
in  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  his  health  having  failed 
him,  he  withdrew  from  active  service,  and  devoted  his 
energies  to  literary  pursuits  and  authorship.  Only  one 
other  remains  to  be  mentioned — my  elder  brother,  Mr. 
James  M.  B.  Dwight,  who  was  a  graduate  of  the  Class 
of  1846.  He  was  a  cultivated  and  scholarly  gentleman, 
but  of  his  life  and  influence  it  is  befitting  that  others 
should  give  an  estimate,  rather  than  myself. 

Five  of  the  company,  as  I  have  already  stated,  are 
still  living.  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Blodget  (of  the  Class  of 
1848)  returned,  not  long  since,  to  his  native  land  for 
the  resting-period  of  life,  after  a  long-continued  and  very 
honorable  missionary  service  in  China.  Rev.  Willis  S. 
Colton  and  Rev.  Moses  C.  WTelch  (both  of  the  Class  of 
1850)  are  retired  ministers,  who  can  look  back,  with 
much  satisfaction,  upon  useful  and  faithful  work  ac- 
complished in  the  pastoral  office  on  behalf  of  the  Chris- 
tian cause.  Professor  Daniel  Bonbright,  a  classmate  of 
the  two  gentleman  just  mentioned,  has  had  the  chair  of 
Latin  in  the  Northwestern  University,  at  Evanston,  UK, 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

for  more  than  forty  years,  and  has  recently  held  the  posi- 
tion of  Acting  President  of  that  institution.  Mr.  Rob- 
bins  Little  gave  himself  to  the  legal  profession  after 
leaving  the  College.  For  nearly  twenty  years  he  held 
the  office  of  Superintendent  of  the  Astor  Library  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  where  he  now  resides. 

It  will  be  noticed,  as  these  brief  statements  are  passed 
under  review,  that  almost  all  of  the  gentlemen  who  were 
my  fellow-tutors  became  either  teachers  or  preachers 
after  the  ending  of  their  temporary  service  at  Yale. 
That  so  many  should  have  entered  upon  the  work  of 
teaching  as  the  business  of  life  will  not  seem  strange, 
if  the  fact  is  borne  in  mind  that  the  acceptance  of  the 
tutorial  office  on  the  part  of  any  individual  is,  in  itself, 
suggestive  of  a  tendency  of  the  mind  in  this  direction. 
With  reference  to  the  ministry,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
reader  may  properly  be  reminded  that,  in  those  days,  it 
was  much  more  customary  than  it  is  at  present  for  young 
men,  after  their  college  graduation,  to  teach  for  a  time 
in  schools,  or  higher  institutions  of  learning,  in  order 
that  they  might  thereby  secure  for  themselves  the  means 
of  meeting  the  expenses  connected  with  their  professional 
studies.  It  may  fitly  be  remembered  also,  that  the  men 
who  most  needed  such  provision  for  the  future  just  be- 
fore them  were,  ordinarily,  those  who  were  intending  to 
enter  the  clerical  profession.  This  profession,  moreover, 
had  then,  if  indeed  it  has  not  now,  a  nearer  kinship  to 
that  of  teaching,  than  any  other  which  opened  itself  to 
educated  young  men. 

The  progress  and  changes  of  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century,  in  connection  with  which  teaching  has  become 
a  more  fully  established  and  independent  profession, 
after  the  manner  of  the  law,  medicine,  and  theology, 
have  had  as  an  incidental  result  the. exclusion  of  the 
second  class  of  persons  mentioned  above  from  our 
Tutorial  Board.  Within  the  fifteen  years  from  1885  to 

213 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

1900,  only  one  person  having  had  membership  in  the 
board  has  entered  upon  any  life-work  other  than  teach- 
ing. This  more  strict  limitation  is  in  some  respects,  and 
perhaps  in  all,  helpful  to  the  best  interests  of  college 
education.  There  was  a  loss  of  force  and  efficiency  on 
the  part  of  the  instructor,  and  of  his  best  intellectual  in- 
fluence upon  his  pupils,  which  resulted  from  his  want  of 
entire  and  permanent  consecration  of  himself  to  the  busi- 
ness in  which  he  was  engaged.  But  the  condition  of 
things  in  this  regard  was  incidental  to  the  age  and  its 
place  in  the  educational  development  of  the  country.  If 
the  young  men  of  the  present  era  have  greater  advan- 
tages by  reason  of  the  change  which  has  taken  place,  it 
is  only  an  additional  instance  of  the  advance  in  their 
good  fortune  beyond  that  of  the  men  who  went  before 
them. 

Whatever  may  be  said  upon  this  point,  the  tutors  at 
that  time  had  as  large  opportunity  to  receive  benefit 
from  one  another  as  their  successors  now  have.  The 
man  who  remained  in  his  office  as  long  as  I  did  enjoyed 
the  privilege  of  familiar  and  friendly  association  with  a 
very  considerable  number  of  young  graduates  of  scholar- 
ly tastes,  and  of  free  and  helpful  conference  with  them 
on  the  great  questions  of  life,  as  well  as  on  the  most 
deeply  interesting  subjects  of  thought.  The  younger 
instructors  then,  as  now,  constituted  a  distinct  company 
or  fraternity  by  reason  of  their  age.  They  were  drawn 
together  and  united  in  a  special  manner,  as  must  always 
be  the  case,  because  of  the  common  fears  and  hopes, 
resolves  and  purposes,  which  pertained  to  all  alike. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  associated  with  me 
in  the  board,  for  one  or  two  years,  three  of  my  college 
classmates,  all  of  whom  had  been  somewhat  intimate 
friends  of  mine  in  our  undergraduate  career.  They 
were,  of  course,  the  men  with  whom  I  was  most  thor- 
oughly acquainted,  and  from  whom  it  is  natural  that  I 

214 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE     AND      MEN 

should  have  gained  the  most  helpfulness  and  stimulating 
force.  But  the  others,  who  came  from  the  classes  im- 
mediately preceding  and  following  my  own,  were  men 
of  intellectual  ability  and  activity,  of  earnest  purpose, 
of  high  character,  of  kindly  spirit,  who  lived  together 
harmoniously  and  wrought  together  for  the  ends  which 
all  alike  had  in  view. 

There  are  many  influences  and  very  precious  ones,  as 
we  all  know,  which  the  college  man  receives  from  his 
classmates.  But  the  college  man  and  his  classmates 
grow  in  maturity  as  the  years  begin  to  move  on  after  the 
day  of  graduation,  and  if  he  and  some  of  them  can  meet 
again  in  a  common  life  for  a  happy  season,  when  a  few 
of  the  years  have  fled,  he  may  get  a  new  blessing,  and  in 
even  richer  measure  perchance,  from  the  new  and  yet 
more  joyful  association. 

The  two  marked  events  of  the  years  between  1851 
and  1855  as  connected  with  the  more  external  life  of  the 
institution  were  the  securing  of  what  has  since  been  called 
the  fund  of  1854,  and  the  erection  of  the  first  building 
of  the  latter  half  of  the  century.  The  commemoration, 
in  October,  1850,  of  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  the  foundation  of  the  College  was  the  occa- 
sion of  an  assemblage  of  a  large  number  of  its  graduates 
and  friends  at  New  Haven,  and  an  awakening  cause  of 
renewed  interest  in  its  welfare  and  development.  At 
about  the  same  time,  the  members  of  the  Faculty — espe- 
cially the  most  thoughtful  and  energetic  among  them — 
became  convinced  that  the  hour  had  arrived  for  an  earn- 
est movement  for  the  increase  of  the  permanent  endow- 
ment. As  a  result  of  this  conviction,  and  of  the  inspiring 
influence  of  the  new  era  which  was  just  opening,  a  vigor- 
ous and  systematic  effort  was  entered  upon  with  a  view 
to  the  addition  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the 
already  existing  funds.  The  raising  of  such  a  sum  at 

215 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

that  period  was  a  matter  of  much  more  difficulty,  and  one 
which  required  for  its  accomplishment  a  much  longer 
time,  than  any  of  those  who  are  unable  to  recall  the  past 
with  fullness  of  recollection  can  easily  realize.  The 
work  moved  forward  encouragingly  indeed,  but  with 
only  moderate  progress,  and  one  or  two  years  elapsed 
before  any  very  considerable  amount  was  received  by  the 
College  Treasury.  The  entire  sum,  however,  was  finally 
made  sure,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  all  Yale  men. 
The  realization  of  success  in  this  most  important  under- 
taking was  only  second  in  its  influence  to  that  which  at- 
tended the  similar  effort  made  in  the  years  1 830  to  1833. 
The  two  movements  were  alike  in  that,  at  a  most  critical 
epoch  in  the  history  of  the  institution,  they  were  essen- 
tial to  its  future  growth — to  its  growth  towards  the 
realization  of  the  university  idea.  The  later  movement 
was  secondary  to  the  earlier  only  in  so  far  as  the  earlier 
was  an  effort  on  the  results  of  which  the  continued 
existence  of  the  College  seemed  to  be  almost  absolutely 
dependent,  while  the  later  was  necessary  for  its  larger 
and  more  complete  development.  The  period  of  finan- 
cial limitation,  even  as  measured  by  the  standard  of 
those  days,  did  not  then,  indeed,  reach  its  end.  But  the 
successful  issue  of  the  undertaking  was  attended  by  a 
more  assured  hope  of  the  coming  time. 

The  building  to  which  I  have  referred  was  the  one 
at  the  corner  of  Elm  and  High  Streets,  called  Alumni 
Hall.  This  building  was  designed  for  the  purpose  of 
furnishing  a  hall  for  meetings  of  the  graduates  on  the 
annual  Commencement  occasions  as  well  as  other  large 
assemblages  on  the  College  grounds,  and  also  rooms  for 
the  uses  of  the  three  principal  debating  societies — the 
Linonian,  Brothers  in  Unity,  and  Calliopean.  The  first- 
mentioned  hall  occupied  the  whole  of  the  first  floor  of 
the  building,  while  the  other  three  filled  the  space  on 
the  second  floor.  The  total  expense  of  this  building  was 
216 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

a  little  more  than  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars.  About 
eleven  thousand  dollars  of  this  sum  was  secured  through 
special  efforts  on  behalf  of  the  Linonian  and  Brothers 
Societies,  made  by  committees  of  those  societies  that 
solicited  contributions  from  graduates  connected  with 
their  membership. 

I  was  myself  one  of  the  committee  of  the  Linonian 
fraternity,  and  was  quite  active  in  the  work  which  was 
assigned  to  it.  It  was  my  first  experience  in  the  matter 
of  soliciting  gifts  for  purposes  of  public  interest,  and  I 
learned  some  of  the  lessons  which  such  experience,  alike 
in  its  beginning  and  in  its  progress,  is  apt  to  teach.  How- 
ever, in  connection  with  my  colleagues  of  the  committee, 
I  was  in  a  very  considerable  measure  successful  in  the 
good  work — as  I  would  gratefully  acknowledge  that  I 
have  been  in  later  years,  when  I  have  been  called  to 
similar  service.  In  due  time,  we  had  the  satisfaction 
of  entering  our  new  hall,  and  of  joining  with  our  fellow- 
members,  older  and  younger,  in  celebrating  within  its 
walls,  at  the  Commencement  season  of  the  year  1853, 
the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of 
our  society.  How  far  from  our  minds,  at  that  interest- 
ing and  happy  time,  was  the  thought — or  even  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  thought — that  twenty  years  later,  all  the 
debating  societies  would  have  ceased  to  exist,  and  that 
the  halls  which  had  been  solemnly  dedicated  to  their 
forensic  contests  would  thereafter  become  college  recita- 
tion rooms,  or  apartments  for  musical  or  other  exercises. 

There  were  two  experiences,  which  I  had  while  in  the 
membership  of  the  committee  just  now  mentioned,  that 
have  remained  in  my  memory  as  instructive  or  sugges- 
tive, and  that  may  perhaps,  for  this  reason,  be  worthy 
of  a  moment's  reference  here.  The  first  was  connected 
with  the  fact  that,  though  one  of  the  youngest  of  the 
committee,  I  came  at  one  time,  for  a  "few  weeks,  to  be 
regarded  as  the  member  upon  whom  the  financial  respon- 
217 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

sibility  rested.  Within  these  weeks  a  note,  which  had 
been  given  by  the  committee,  matured  some  time  before 
the  amount  necessary  to  pay  it  had  been  secured.  The 
excellent  officers  of  the  bank  where  the  note  was  placed, 
called  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  payment  had  not 
been  made,  and  that  the  note  might  be  protested.  By 
urging  upon  their  notice,  with  fitting  emphasis,  the  names 
and  financial  standing  of  my  elder  associates  in  the 
committee  who  were  well  known  to  them,  I  mitigated  the 
sternness  of  their  demeanor,  and  secured  a  delay  of  a 
few  days.  Quite  unexpectedly,  within  this  brief  limit 
of  time,  contributions  for  our  funds  were  received 
which  were  sufficient  to  meet  the  demand  of  the  case; 
the  amount  of  the  note  was  paid;  and  the  threatened 
danger  which  had  disturbed  my  mind  was  escaped.  The 
danger  of  the  moment  passed;  but  there  was  for  me  a 
suggestion  connected  with  it,  as  bearing  upon  the  rela- 
tion of  personal  income  to  expenditures,  and  the  order  of 
arrangement  fitting  for  the  two,  which  has  continued 
with  me  in  its  influence  and,  as  a  consequence,  has  given 
me  much  comfort  in  the  subsequent  years. 

The  other  experience  or  incident,  to  which  I  allude, 
was  of  quite  a  different  character.  Among  the  many 
graduates  to  whom  I  addressed  letters  of  appeal  for 
gifts  for  Linonia,  was  one  of  the  Class  of  1 8 1 8,  an  entire 
stranger  to  me,  who  resided  in  Baltimore.  A  few  days 
after  my  letter  reached  him  he  sent  me  a  reply,  in  which 
he  declined  to  make  any  contribution  whatever  for  the 
purpose  indicated — and,  by  reason  of  strong  feeling,  he 
fell  into  the  oratorical  style — and  said:  "A  debating 
society!  I  will  never  give  a  penny  for  such  an  object. 
The  curse  of  the  world — that  which  the  world  is  perish- 
ing of,  is  Gab !  If  any  one  will  ask  me  to  contribute  for 
the  building  of  a  deaf  and  dumb  asylum,  I  will  gladly 
respond  with  a  liberal  gift."  The  good  old  gentleman's 
answer,  I  confess,  was  not  very  encouraging  to  me  at 
218 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  moment,  though  there  was  an  amusing  element  in  it 
which  was,  in  a  measure,  comforting  to  my  spirit.  But 
as  the  years  have  passed  on  a  long  way  since  the  letter 
came  to  me,  and  I  have  had  many  suggestive  experiences 
— as  I  doubt  not  is  the  case  with  all  men  who  are  in  more 
or  less  public  positions — I  have  often  meditated  on  the 
old  graduate's  views,  and  have  realized,  far  more  than 
I  did  at  the  beginning,  how  much  there  is  to  be  said 
for  deaf  and  dumb  asylums. 

We  accomplished  our  purpose,  however,  without  the 
venerable  gentleman's  aid,  and  he  lived  long  enough  to 
see  the  end  of  the  existence  of  the  debating  societies;  and 
so  both  parties  may  well  have  been  satisfied.  The  prog- 
ress and  process  of  time  have  brought  the  halls  to  new 
uses,  in  which  both  alike,  as  sons  of  Yale,  might  now 
fitly  see  much  good  for  the  institution,  as  related  to  its 
most  direct  and  largest  work. 

The  life  of  the  student  community  in  those  four  years 
differed  but  little  in  its  general  features  and  character- 
istics from  what  it  had  been  while  I  was  an  undergradu- 
ate. As  the  interval  between  the  two  periods  was  so 
brief,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  many  changes  could 
have  taken  place.  My  own  thought  of  the  life,  however, 
was  in  some  measure  a  new  one,  because  it  was  taken 
from  a  different  point  of  view.  The  boys  seemed 
younger  than  they  did  in  1849,  or  I  myself  seemed  a 
little  older.  They  were  subjects  of  college  government, 
while  I  was  a  college  officer.  They  were  under  the  in- 
fluence of  all  the  customs  and  rules  (immemorial  in  their 
origin,  as  they  thought),  which  have  such  well-known 
power  in  all  institutions  of  learning.  I,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  beginning  to  feel  that  manly  life  might  rise 
above  the  all-controlling  force  of  these  law-giving  cus- 
toms, and  might  even  go  so  far  as- to  establish  for  it- 
self new  and  better  ones.  It  is  strange  how  largely 
219 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

men  are  affected,  oftentimes,  by  a  mere  change  in  the 
place  of  their  outlook.  I  remember  a  conversation 
which  I  had,  on  one  occasion  within  my  tutorial  career, 
when  a  miniature  rebellion  was  threatening  a  disturbance 
of  the  College  peace,  with  a  young  Senior  who  had  just 
finished,  only  a  week  earlier,  his  final  examination  and 
been  listed  for  his  degree — a  conversation  illustrative  in 
its  character.  He  was  a  man  whom  I  had  known 
familiarly  through  all  his  course,  and  between  whom 
and  myself  there  was  then,  as  there  still  is,  a  kindly 
friendship.  Feeling  sure  that  he  would  have  been  in 
hearty  sympathy  with  the  irate  students,  if  they  had  been 
his  own  classmates,  and  would  very  possibly  have  par- 
ticipated in  their  action,  I  asked  him,  out  of  curiosity 
and  scarcely  able  to  conceal  a  smile,  his  judgment  as 
to  what  the  Faculty  ought  to  do  in  the  case.  In  the  most 
sober  and  authoritative  manner,  as  if  he  were  the  Presi- 
dent himself,  he  replied:  "  There  is  but  one  course  for 
the  Faculty  to  pursue,  as  I  view  the  matter;  and  that  is, 
to  quell  the  disturbance,  whatever  it  may  cost."  The  day 
which  passed  him  on  toward  the  company  of  graduates 
had  made  a  new  man  of  him  in  relation  to  the  subject 
of  college  government.  So  it  is  with  us  all.  The  times, 
in  our  personal  living,  change,  and  we  change  with  them. 
I  may  say  for  myself,  however,  that  I  had  not  then 
outgrown  the  sympathies  of  the  student  life — and, 
though  I  am  older  now  by  many  years  than  I  was  then, 
I  have  not  even  yet  passed  beyond  their  influence  alto- 
gether. But  as  I  say  this,  I  am  sure  that  the  younger 
men  and  the  older  men  of  the  present  age  will  all  agree, 
in  their  thoughtful  hours,  that  the  student  life — like  the 
life  of  the  world — realizes  its  ideal  only  as  it  rids  itself 
of  what  is  unworthy  of  genuine  manliness.  It  cannot 
claim  the  fullness  of  our  sympathy  except  as  it  reaches 
out  after  the  ideal.  There  was,  I  think,  a  silent  move- 
ment in  those  years  which  had  promise  in  it.  It  was 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  beginning  of  what  has  been  witnessed  in  the  later 
time,  and  of  that  which,  as  we  may  believe,  will  be  yet 
more  clearly  seen  in  its  completeness  in  the  future. 

With  reference  to  the  friendly  relations  between  the 
younger  members  of  the  Faculty  and  the  students,  I 
think  that  in  these  years  the  smaller  and  secret  societies 
began  to  exert  an  influence  of  a  special  character.  These 
societies,  during  the  larger  portion  of  my  tutorial  career, 
drew  into  their  fraternal  fellowship,  more  fully  and  fre- 
quently than  they  had  done  before,  their  members  who 
were  already  graduates,  and,  among  them,  those  who 
had  been  appointed  to  offices  of  instruction  in  the  Col- 
lege. An  opportunity  was  thus  opened  for  a  very  free 
and  unrestrained  intercourse,  from  time  to  time,  between 
the  teachers  and  their  pupils.  The  two  parties  were 
easily  rendered  able  to  understand  each  other's  thoughts 
and  feelings,  and  to  gain,  each  from  the  other,  opinions 
or  suggestions  which  might  have  the  best  and  happiest 
influence.  For  myself,  I  am  sure  that  such  opportuni- 
ties, in  my  younger  days,  were  of  very  great  service  and 
benefit.  They  gave  me  the  knowledge  of  the  student 
mind,  as  well  as  a  familiar  and  friendly  acquaintance 
with  the  ideas  and  sentiments  of  individual  students. 

It  was  my  privilege,  for  which  I  have  been  ever  grate- 
ful, to  know  by  this  means,  and  even  to  know  with  much 
of  intimacy  and  affectionate  feeling,  many  members  of 
the  successive  classes  which  came  under  my  instruction 
while  I  was  in  the  tutorial  office.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  me, 
as  I  review  the  past  history,  to  feel  that  they  and  I 
worked  together  not  only,  as  I  believe,  for  our  mutual 
upbuilding  in  knowledge  and  character,  but  also  for  the 
introduction  of  better  life  in  the  student  community  and 
more  truly  kindly  relations  between  the  younger  and  the 
older  portions  of  the  College  world;  in  a  word,  that  we 
took  part  as  friends — our  part,  whatever  it  may  have 
been  as  to  its  measure — in  making  the  University  a 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

brotherhood  of  educated  men,  bound  together  in  a  com- 
mon earnestness  of  purpose  and  having,  each  and  all, 
the  generous  feeling  which  pertains  to  liberal  scholar- 
ship. 

In  December,  1855,  I  resigned  my  office  with  happy 
memories  of  its  service,  and  happy  thoughts  of  what 
was  before  me ;  and,  a  month  later,  I  sailed  for  Europe 
for  a  course  of  study  which  extended  over  two  and  a  half 
years. 


XIII. 

Student  Years  in  Germany — Universities  of  Berlin  and 
Bonn,  1856-58. 

THE  period  of  my  residence  abroad  extended 
from  the  beginning  of  February,  1856,  to  the 
end  of  June,  1858.  During  this  period,  I  had 
no  official  connection  with  the  College,  and  no  definite 
prospect  or  expectation  of  any  such  connection  in  the 
future.  These  two  and  a  half  years,  accordingly,  do 
not,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  words,  belong  to  my 
Yalensian  life.  In  view  of  the  fact,  however,  that,  in 
consequence  of  advice  offered  by  President  Woolsey  soon 
after  my  arrival  in  Germany,  I  devoted  myself  largely 
to  New  Testament  studies  while  there,  and  of  the  ad- 
ditional fact,  that,  almost  immediately  upon  my  return 
homeward,  the  appointment  to  the  professorship  in  the 
line  of  these  studies  in  the  Divinity  School  was  given  me, 
I  have  always  regarded  these  years  as  having  a  prepara- 
tory character,  and  as,  in  reality,  forming  no  break  or 
interruption  in  my  university  career.  It  may  not  be  un- 
fitting, therefore,  if  I  place  within  my  record  a  very 
few  words  respecting  some  of  the  professors  whom  I 
knew  as  my  teachers  at  the  universities  of  Berlin  and 
Bonn,  and  recall  a  few  of  the  old  memories  and  experi- 
ences of  my  student  life  in  those  schools  of  learning. 

It  was,  I  think,  a  greater  privilege  for  a  young  scholar 
to  spend  two  or  three  educational  years  in  Germany 
forty-five  years  ago,  than  it  is  now.  Certainly,  it  was 
a  privilege  less  often  enjoyed,  and  for  this  reason,  if 
there  had  been  no  other,  it  was  one  worthy  of  being 
223 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

very  highly  prized.  There  were,  however,  other  reasons 
of  much  more  significance  and  weight.  The  opportuni- 
ties for  advanced  study  in  our  American  institutions,  at 
that  time,  were  quite  limited.  The  progress  which  these 
institutions  had  made  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century 
— which  was,  indeed,  very  marked — was  in  the  sphere 
of  the  means  and  facilities  for  undergraduate  instruc- 
tion. Even  in  this  sphere,  the  opening  future  was  mak- 
ing manifest  still  greater  demands,  the  supplying  of 
which,  it  was  already  seen,  would  render  necessary  a 
more  complete  equipment  of  professors  and  teachers  for 
their  work.  But  in  the  region  of  graduate  studies,  as 
that  term  is  now  understood,  very  little  had  as  yet  been 
accomplished.  Yale  was  the  first,  or  one  of  the  first  of 
our  institutions  to  take  action  in  this  matter,  but  what 
it  had  done  amounted  to  but  little  more,  as  viewed  from 
the  present  stage  of  progress,  than  the  very  earliest 
beginning. 

It  was  indeed  an  era  of  limitations  in  this  regard. 
The  means  of  development  were  not  in  the  possession 
of  those  who  had  begun  to  appreciate  the  needs,  while 
the  mind  of  the  general  educated  public,  and  even  of 
generous  givers,  had  not  yet  awakened  to  the  importance 
of  such  development.  A  resort  to  the  larger  and  longer 
established  universities  of  the  Old  World  was  in  the 
highest  degree  helpful,  not  to  say  essential,  if  the  stu- 
dent would  educate  himself  according  to  his  truest  ideals. 
Those  universities  had  very  much  to  give  him  in  the  way 
of  learning  and  knowledge.  They  had  much  also  to 
offer  in  connection  with  their  methods  of  instruction  and 
their  provisions  of  every  sort,  while  in  the  very  atmos- 
phere of  their  scholarly  life  there  was  an  inspiration  un- 
known elsewhere. 

With  the  movement  of  the  years  since  that  time,  a 
great  change  has  come — a  change,  not  in  the  Old  World, 
but  in  the  New.  Our  universities  have  advanced  towards 
224 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  standard  of  those  beyond  the  ocean,  and  to-day  the 
young  student  may  gain  for  himself  here,  in  very  large 
measure  or  even  in  its  fullness,  what  he  might  hope  to 
gain  there ;  so  that  his  going  abroad  for  studies  finds  its 
happiest  results,  not  so  much  in  new  knowledges,  or 
methods,  or  inspirations  in  the  scholarly  sphere,  as  in 
the  gift  that  comes  from  a  sojourn  for  a  season  in  a  dif- 
ferent country  from  his  own,  and  from  a  consequent 
change  in  his  point  of  view  and  his  outlook. 

But,  whether  the  privilege  was  greater  then  than  now, 
or  not,  it  was  one  the  blessing  of  which,  in  my  own  case, 
I  have  realized  more  fully  as  the  subsequent  years  have 
passed  on  in  their  course. 

The  German  professors,  at  the  time  when  I  was  a 
young  student,  were,  in  their  thinking  and  living,  much 
more  apart  from  the  common  life  of  the  world  than  were 
those  of  our  own  country.  They  dwelt  more  exclusively 
in  the  region  of  their  special  studies,  and  were,  in  a  far 
higher  degree,  disposed  to  allow  the  men  about  them, 
who  were  engaged  in  other  duties  and  other  spheres,  to 
manage  the  affairs  pertaining  to  the  general  interests  of 
society  or  the  State.  It  seemed  to  them,  indeed,  to  be  in 
no  manner  or  measure  to  their  discredit  to  be  wholly 
neglectful,  or  even  wholly  ignorant,  of  very  simple 
things  that  were  outside  of  their  own  particular  lines  of 
work  or  thought.  The  story  which  was  occasionally  told 
of  the  professor  who,  at  the  close  of  his  career,  ex- 
pressed his  regret  that  he  had  not  confined  his  studies 
entirely  to  the  dative  case,  was  descriptive,  though,  of 
course,  in  an  exaggerated  way — not  only  of  the  tendency 
characteristic  of  them  all,  to  limit  themselves  in  the 
range  of  their  investigations  as  scholars  to  the  end  that 
they  might  be  exhaustive  in  their  researches  within  the 
self-imposed  boundaries — but  also  df  the  kindred  tend- 
ency to  move,  in  their  own  field,  along  some  narrow 
225 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

pathway  without  turning  or  looking  towards  the  other 
paths  which  opened  on  either  side. 

As  a  natural,  and  almost  necessary  consequence,  they 
often  became  enthusiasts  in  their  teaching,  with  an  en- 
thusiasm which  imparted  itself  in  greater  or  less  measure 
to  their  pupils;  and  even  .more  frequently  became  in 
themselves  men  of  such  marked  singularities  in  manner 
and  appearance,  or  in  their  ways  of  thinking  and  speak- 
ing, as  to  excite  a  special  interest  in  the  minds  of  all 
who  saw  them  or  entered  their  lecture  rooms. 

Of  all  the  professors  on  whose  exercises  it  was  my 
privilege  to  attend,  the  most  peculiar  was  Leopold  von 
Ranke,  the  celebrated  historian.  His  distinguished  abil- 
ity and  well-known  learning  attracted  comparatively 
large  numbers  of  students,  who  listened  to  him  with 
profound  respect,  as  well  as  with  closest  attention.  They 
were  impatient,  like  all  German  students  of  those  days, 
whenever  any  noise  or  interruption  occurred  which,  in 
the  least,  arrested  the  continuity  of  the  discourse,  or 
hindered  them  in  following  the  thought  of  the  speaker. 
In  this  regard,  and  indeed  in  every  view  of  the  matter, 
they  were  model  hearers,  affording  an  example  worthy 
to  be  imitated  by  students  everywhere. 

The  lecturer,  however,  on  his  part,  seemed  to  be  alto- 
gether oblivious  of  his  audience.  It  was — so  it  impressed 
me — as  if  he  had  by  reason  of  habit,  or  the  force  of 
some  law  which  had  established  itself  in  his  mind  and 
memory,  taken  his  way  to  a  certain  room  in  the  uni- 
versity building  at  a  particular  hour,  and,  when  there, 
had  begun  as  it  were  to  meditate  aloud  on  his  favorite 
theme.  He  was  a  man  of  small  stature,  of  a  round  and 
closely  shaven,  smooth  face,  and  with  bright,  piercing 
eyes  which  had  a  tendency  to  look  upwards.  As  he  en- 
tered the  lecture  room,  he  seated  himself  in  the  chair 
behind  his  desk,  and  immediately  began  his  discourse — 
his  words  being  uttered  with  very  great  rapidity;  his 
226 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

eyes  turning  away  from  the  hearers  and  toward  a  point 
in  the  ceiling  near  the  side  windows  of  the  apartment. 
He  reminded  me,  whenever  I  looked  upon  him  after  the 
excitement  of  the  lecture  had  taken  full  possession  of 
his  mind,  of  one  of  the  cherubs  in  the  Sistine  Madonna 
of  Raphael.  He  seemed  as  joyous  in  the  vision  which 
opened  itself  before  him,  and  as  far  away  in  his  thoughts 
from  all  things  else.  Occasionally,  indeed,  he  wakened 
to  a  consciousness  which  is  inseparable  from  the  German 
professorial  mind,  and  recognized  the  existence  of  his 
hearers  as  he  uttered  the  inevitable  words:  "  Meine 
Herren."  But  it  was  for  a  moment  only,  and  again  he 
passed  into  what  appeared  like  a  delightful  revery. 

His  emphasis  was,  oftentimes,  as  remarkable  as  the 
rapidity  of  his  utterance.  As  he  moved  on  through  his 
sentences  and  paragraphs,  he  would  lower  his  tone  of 
voice  and,  peradventure,  moderate  his  excitement  of 
manner,  seeming  to  his  audience,  perchance,  to  be  just 
establishing  a  conclusion.  But  suddenly — as  if  a  new 
objection  or  difficulty,  or  a  new  thought  tending  to 
greater  clearness,  had  occurred  to  him — he  would  break 
forth  into  an  almost  startling  loudness  of  tone  with  the 
utterance  of  the  word,  "  Aber."  Then,  with  a  greater 
velocity  than  at  any  earlier  moment,  and  with  a  voice 
rapidly  sinking  into  a  whisper — his  eye,  meanwhile,  still 
more  rapt  in  its  own  vision,  and  his  hearers  passing  still 
farther  away  from  his  thought — he  would  move  on  to 
the  end  of  his  discourse  and  to  a  kind  of  victorious 
silence. 

It  was  delightful  to  see  the  man,  and  to  witness  his 
scholarly  joy  in  his  work  and  his  learning,  as  he  sat  in 
the  presence  of  his  pupils.  But  I  wondered  sometimes 
whether,  in  these  not  infrequent  outbreaks  or  outbursts 
of  his  thought,  even  those  who  were  most  familiar  with 
his  language  and  style  were  able  to  understand,  with 

227 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

absolute  clearness,  what  he  said.  It  seemed  like  the 
whizz  of  a  bullet  as  it  passes  by  the  ear,  and  then  passes 
beyond  the  hearing.  I  was  a  stranger,  however,  of  an- 
other land  and  another  tongue,  while  they  were  his 
fellow-countrymen,  and — if  I  may  be  permitted  thus  to 
use  the  term — were  "  to  the  manner  born."  At  all 
events,  the  lecture  room  was  filled  from  day  to  day;  and 
well  it  may  have  been,  for  he  was  the  leading  scholar  in 
his  sphere  of  learning,  and  one  of  the  most  prominent 
scholars  of  his  time.  He  lived  for  long  years  after  my 
student  days,  and  even  beyond  the  age  of  ninety. 

Professor  Karl  Ludwig  Michelet  was,  beyond  all  the 
other  men  whom  I  met  in  Germany,  an  inspiring  lecturer. 
He  belonged  indeed,  in  this  particular  regard,  to  the 
very  highest  class,  and  had  what  I  have  called  magnetic 
inspiration — the  gift  which  moves  the  pupil  almost 
irresistibly  to  press  forward  at  once  and  with  earnest- 
ness in  the  study  which  the  teacher  opens  to  him.  He 
lectured,  in  successive  university  terms,  on  a  variety  of 
subjects — generally,  of  course,  related  to  his  more  special 
department  of  philosophy,  but  sometimes  quite  outside 
of  its  limits.  But  whatever  his  theme  might  be,  the 
inspiration,  for  me  at  least,  was  ever  the  same.  I  was 
moved  by  so  strong  an  impulse  that  it  was  with  diffi- 
culty that  I  could  restrain  myself,  while  under  his  influ- 
ence, from  following  after  him  in  the  way  which  he 
pointed  out,  to  the  neglect  of  other  and,  for  me,  primary 
subjects. 

He  had  not  been  promoted  to  the  highest  grade  of 
professional  rank,  but  was  still,  though  fifty  years  of 
age,  a  Professor  Extraordinarius.  As  I  recall  the  con- 
dition of  that  era,  the  thought  suggests  itself  to  my  mind, 
that  the  reason  for  his  continuance  in  the  lower  position 
may  have  been  of  a  political  character — that  his  senti- 
ments in  this  regard  were  not  satisfactory  to  the  chief 
authorities.  Whether  it  was  so,  or  not,  I  would  not  at- 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

tempt  to  say;  but  he  certainly  had  a  favorable  disposi- 
tion towards  republican  institutions,  which  was  not 
manifested  by  his  colleagues  and  associates  in  general, 
and  he  sometimes  exercised  considerable  freedom  in  his 
expression  of  opinions  concerning  them.  I  remember 
one  occasion  on  which,  after  discoursing  for  a  consider- 
able time,  in  a  lecture,  on  the  United  States  and  our 
system  of  government,  he  said — evidently  with  great 
personal  satisfaction :  "  The  monarchical  powers  in 
Europe  are  ever  ready  to  call  attention  to  what  they 
style  the  instability  and  want  of  permanence  manifest  in 
the  history  of  republics;  but  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment has  now  existed,  without  disturbance,  for  seventy 
years.  How  many  overturnings,  '  meine  Herren,'  have 
there  been  within  these  seventy  years  in  European  coun- 
tries?" This  was,  indeed,  only  four  years  before  the 
outbreaking  of  our  Civil  War,  which  the  professor,  like 
all  other  men,  was  not  able  to  foresee.  But  that  great 
struggle  did  not  shake  the  foundations  of  republican 
government,  or  republican  ideas;  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that,  when  it  came  to  its  end,  his  faith  in  our  institutions 
had  new  strength  and  his  satisfaction  in  his  long-cher- 
ished beliefs  took  to  itself  a  still  greater  measure  of  joy. 

The  general  movement  of  my  studies  being  in  other 
lines  than  those  which  he  followed,  it  was  impossible  for 
me  to  be  more  than  an  occasional  attendant  upon  his 
lectures.  I  have  always  remembered  him,  however,  with 
a  feeling  akin  to  gratitude,  because  of  the  inspiration 
which  he  gave  me  and  the  almost  limitless  enthusiasm 
which  he  manifested. 

The  most  distinguished  teacher  of  theology,  in  the 
doctrinal  sphere,  in  the  University  of  Berlin  at  that  time 
was  Karl  Immanuel  Nitzsch,  and  there  was  none  at  Bonn 
who  had  equal  prominence.  He  was,  however,  some- 
what advanced  in  years,  and  his  lectures  were  valuable, 
rather  for  the  matter  which  was  in  them,  than  for  any 
229 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

additional  life  or  interest  which  they  gained  by  reason 
of  his  personal  presence.  One  felt,  in  listening  to  him, 
that  the  same  words  read  in  a  book  would  be  equally 
useful.  In  his  earlier  years  he  may,  not  improbably, 
have  been  more  full  of  life-giving  vigor.  But  now  the 
feeling  of  his  students  was  that  of  esteem  and  reverence 
for  the  man,  rather  than  that  of  interest  in  his  forth- 
putting  of  his  thoughts. 

Dr.  August  Twesten  was  younger  than  Nitzsch  by 
two  years  and  of  a  less  wide-extended  reputation,  but  he 
held  perhaps  the  next  highest  place  in  the  theological 
faculty.  He  had  the  great  advantage,  so  far  as  his 
relations  to  students  were  concerned,  of  being  a  stimu- 
lating lecturer — one  of  the  most  stimulating,  indeed,  in 
the  entire  professorial  body.  He  lectured  on  Exegesis 
also,  as  well  as  on  doctrinal  theology,  and  thus  was 
especially  helpful  to  me  in  my  own  particular  department 
of  study. 

He  was  a  man  of  moderate  height;  broad  and  well- 
developed  in  frame;  corpulent  enough  to  be  happy  and 
good-natured,  yet  not  enough  to  make  him  overweight- 
ed; with  a  kindly  face,  an  intelligent  eye,  and  a  pleasant 
voice.  He  seemed  to  me,  as  I  saw  him  in  his  lecture 
room,  to  be  not  more  than  fifty-eight  years  of  age, 
though  I  find,  by  the  records,  that  he  was  ten  years 
older  than  I  supposed.  His  enthusiasm  was  of  the  char- 
acter and  measure  which  men  of  thirty  or  forty  exhibit 
more  frequently  than  men  already  nearly  seventy.  But 
when  enthusiasm  pertains  to  the  nature,  it  does  not  pass 
away  with  the  years.  Sometimes  it  starts  into  new  life 
and  energy  in  the  later  season,  when  ordinary  men  who 
have  never  had  its  genuine  vitalizing  force,  within  them- 
selves are  becoming  dull  in  their  minds  and  motionless. 

In  my  own  special  studies,  I  derived  more,  perhaps, 
from  him  than  from  any  other  teacher  whom  I  met,  for 
as  a  lecturer  he  was  an  excellent  example  of  the  true 
230 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

exegete  and  admirably  adapted  to  give  the  best  influences 
of  the  German  methods  of  the  period.  Withal  he  was 
friendly  to  all  his  pupils,  and  through  his  kindliness  he 
gave  to  many  of  them  a  very  pleasant  impression  of  the 
home  life  of  the  Fatherland  and  of  the  peculiar  Gemuth- 
lichkeit  of  the  best  of  his  countrymen.  The  successive 
classes  of  young  men  who  came  under  his  instruction 
carried  with  them  as  they  left  the  University  the  im- 
press and  stimulus  of  his  scholarship.  They  also  cher- 
ished a  most  pleasant  memory  of  the  personality  of  their 
teacher. 

Hengstenberg  was  still  in  the  full  vigor  of  his  man- 
hood, being  only  fifty-five  years  old.  He  lectured  mainly 
on  the  Old  Testament,  but  at  times  also  on  the  New 
Testament,  especially  on  topics  pertaining  to  the  Intro- 
duction. As  a  lecturer  he  was  so  scholarly  that  he  com- 
manded respect  for  his  learning,  but  he  awakened  no 
very  special  interest,  as  I  should  judge,  except  in  minds 
having  more  or  less  resemblance  to  his  own.  His  views, 
which  were  ultra-conservative,  were  expressed  in  the 
most  pronounced  and  positive  manner.  Even  the  intona- 
tion of  voice  with  which  they  were  uttered  was  pecu- 
liarly dogmatic.  It  seemed  to  me,  whenever  I  heard 
him,  indicative  of  the  animosity  of  an  obstinate  theo- 
logical combatant.  He  was  possibly  more  stimulating 
than  Rodiger  of  Halle,  but  much  less  of  an  impulsive 
and  independent  scholar,  I  think,  than  Ewald,  who  was 
then  at  Gdttingen. 

The  Philosophical  Faculty  at  Berlin  included  in  its 
circle  Karl  Ritter,  the  eminent  geographer,  in  whose  lec- 
ture room  I  had  my  first  introduction  into  German 
student  life;  Bekker  and  Haupt,  in  the  department  of 
classical  philology — the  former  having  very  few  hearers 
and  seeming  to  be  little  interested  in  what  he  was  saying 
to  them;  the  latter  giving  the  indications  of  scholarship 
which  are  found  in  his  books;  Trendelenburg,  who  was 
231 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  the  foremost  rank  among  the  scholars  devoted  to 
mental  science;  Lepsius,  who  held  the  first  position  in 
Egyptology — whom  it  was  a  privilege  to  hear,  and  even 
to  see,  for  in  his  face  and  person  he  was  as  prominent 
in  the  University  citizenship  as  he  was  in  his  fame  and 
learning;  and  others  in  other  lines,  who  were  of  similar 
distinction  in  their  own  special  spheres  of  work.  For 
the  student  of  wide-reaching  tastes  and  desires,  having  a 
mind  ever  opening  with  fresh  ardor  towards  new  knowl- 
edge, there  was  enough  to  meet  every  wish  or  want — 
there  was  more,  indeed,  than  he  could  take  to  himself 
and  make  his  own.  Such  a  student  could  not  fail  to 
find  new  impulses  and  new  enthusiasms  continually  stir- 
ring within  him.  Even  the  ordinary  student,  of  slower 
movement  and  less  wakefulness,  might  well  feel  inspir- 
ited by  what  was  so  richly  offered  to  him  on  every  side. 
The  true  university,  as  I  have  always  thought,  has  a 
special  inspiration  for  every  man  of  generous  mind  and 
heart  in  its  membership — an  inspiration  additional  to  all 
others — which  has  its  source  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  place 
of  universal  learning,  a  place  where  those  about  him  are 
men  who,  in  their  union  as  a  company  of  scholars,  know 
somewhat,  at  least,  of  the  wide  range  of  knowledge. 

At  the  university  in  Bonn,  where  I  spent  the  summer 
semester  of  my  first  year  in  Germany,  I  gave  myself 
wholly  to  classical  studies.  I  had  not  yet  determined  to 
take  up  New  Testament  work.  In  the  Greek  depart- 
ment Welcker,  who  was  seventy-two  years  of  age  at  that 
time,  was  the  senior  professor,  and  Friedrich  Ritschl  was 
the  next  in  reputation  and  influence.  I  had  letters  of 
introduction  to  both  of  these  gentlemen,  but  for  some 
reason  I  happened  to  make  my  first  call  upon  Welcker, 
a  few  days  after  I  had  settled  myself  in  my  rooms  and 
just  as  the  university  term  was  about  to  open.  My  letter 
to  him  was  from  Dr.  Woolsey,  who  had  been  one  of  his 
232 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

students  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  earlier.  He  received 
me  kindly ;  but  he  had  evidently  passed  beyond  his  inter- 
est in  younger  life,  though  apparently  his  love  for  his 
favorite  studies  yet  lingered  in  its  strength.  When  I 
said  to  him,  that  I  hoped  to  see  Professor  Ritschl,  and 
added  that  I  supposed  him  to  be  of  the  highest  standing 
in  Greek  scholarship,  he  replied:  "  Yes,  he  is  a  rising 
scholar  of  promise."  To  my  surprise,  when  I  saw 
Ritschl  a  little  later,  I  found  him  to  be  a  man  of  fifty, 
giving  every  indication  in  his  appearance  of  being  al- 
ready "  risen,"  if  indeed  it  was  in  his  appointed  destiny 
ever  to  become  so.  In  Welcker's  view,  however,  I  sup- 
pose that  no  man  of  the  following  scholarly  generation 
could  be  considered,  even  at  the  highest  estimate,  as  other 
than  in  the  process  of  "  rising."  This  process  was,  possi- 
bly, a  somewhat  slower  one  for  German  scholars  in  those 
days,  than  it  is  at  present.  As  for  Welcker  himself, 
there  could  be  no  doubt  that  he  had  passed  out  of  and 
beyond  the  "  rising  "  class.  He  was  interesting  to  me 
by  reason  of  his  fame,  and  of  his  representative  character 
as  a  man  of  the  era  which  was  just  closing.  But  his  day 
was  manifestly  drawing  towards  its  end,  and  he  was  less 
effective  and  awakening  than  he  had  been  in  Dr.  Wool- 
sey's  student  years. 

Professor  Franz  Ritter,  then  about  forty-five  years 
old,  was  one  of  my  teachers  at  Bonn  whom  I  can  never 
forget.  He  lectured  on  one  or  two  of  the  tragedies  of 
Sophocles,  and  his  characteristics  as  a  lecturer,  as  well 
as  his  personality,  were  calculated  to  impress  themselves 
on  the  memory  of  those  who  heard  him.  He  had  but 
thirteen  in  his  class,  during  that  semester.  Of  these, 
there  were  never  more  than  seven  present  at  any  one 
lecture;  generally  not  more  than  five;  and  occasionally 
only  three — these  three  being  two  friends,  with  whom 
I  occupied  a  suite  of  rooms,  and  myself.  It  seemed, 
however,  to  make  no  difference  to  the  professor  whether 

23.3 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

his  class  was  large  or  small,  or  whether  the  major  part 
of  those  who  belonged  to  it  were  in  attendance  or  not. 

It  was  the  subject,  not  the  number  of  listeners — not 
these  or  those  students,  three  or  thirty-three — which  in- 
terested him.  The  old  Greek  characters  and  the  old 
Greek  poetry  and  life  were  all-absorbing  to  his  mind. 
The  excitement  of  his  ardor  knew  no  bounds.  He  would 
be  in  a  rapture  of  delight  as  he  moved  on  in  his  dis- 
course— a  delight  which  manifested  itself  in  the  intona- 
tions of  his  voice,  and  in  the  swaying  of  his  body  and  his 
earnest  and  vigorous  gesticulation.  He  did  not  forget 
the  hearers,  as  Ranke  seemed  often  to  do,  but,  if  he 
had  but  a  single  one,  he  gladly  poured  forth  his  thoughts 
and  his  ideas  of  the  poet's  thought  with  the  most  intense 
pleasure  and  satisfaction.  The  poet  himself  would 
surely  have  been  glad  to  hear  him. 

Ritter  opened  his  house  with  kindly  hospitality  to 
his  students.  His  wife  was  cordial  and  affable,  like  him- 
self. His  children  were  either  in  their  early  youth  or 
just  coming  to  their  maturity.  Together  they  consti- 
tuted a  typical  pleasant  German  household,  simple  and 
unpretentious,  but  friendly  and  intelligent.  One  of  the 
sons  holds  at  present  a  professorship  in  the  University 
of  Bonn,  not  in  his  father's  line  of  studies,  but  in  the 
department  of  History. 

When  I  was  in  the  University,  Ritter  was  a  Professor 
Extraordinarius.  Though  he  was  the  author  of  some 
valuable  and  scholarly  books,  I  think  he  was  not  very 
widely  known.  He  lived  only  about  fifteen  years  after 
the  time  of  my  residence  in  Bonn,  and  when  I  visited 
that  interesting  and  beautiful  city  in  1891,  his  life  and 
work  seemed  to  have  passed  out  of  the  remembrance  of 
the  persons  whom  I  chanced  to  meet.  But  he  had  not 
passed  from  my  memory,  and  I  went  to  the  place  of 
his  burial  with  the  affectionate  feeling  of  an  old  pupil 
234 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

who  had  gained  from  him  both  instruction  and  inspira- 
tion. 

Otto  Jahn,  though  at  that  time  comparatively  near 
the  middle  point  of  life,  had  already  attained  high  repu- 
tation in  Latin  scholarship  and  had  received  an  appoint- 
ment as  Professor  Ordinarius.  He  did  not  have  the 
peculiar  enthusiasm  which  was  characteristic  of  Ritter. 
He  gave  his  lectures,  if  I  remember  aright,  while  sitting 
in  his  chair  behind  his  desk,  which  Ritter  could  not  have 
done.  He  had,  however,  a  measure  of  this  gift  beyond 
that  of  ordinary  men,  and  by  his  clear  voice,  his  distinct 
and  earnest  utterance,  his  sparkling  eyes,  and  his  abun- 
dant growth  of  hair  which  added  to  the  striking  expres- 
sion of  his  face,  he  impressed  himself  upon  the  minds  of 
his  hearers  as  a  man  of  eminent  ability.  He  was  much 
devoted  to  archaeological  studies,  and  his  lectures  in  con- 
nection with  them  were  regarded  as  especially  valuable. 
His  contemporaries  in  his  department  of  learning  had 
large  hopes  with  reference  to  his  future  work.  But 
these  were  only  partially  realized,  as  he  lived  but  thir- 
teen years  after  the  time  of  which  I  am  writing,  and  died 
at  the  age  of  fifty-six. 

The  University  preacher  at  Bonn,  in  1856,  was  Pro- 
fessor Steinmeyer,  one  of  the  Faculty  of  Theology.  He 
held  the  position  which  was  afterwards  filled  by  Christ- 
lieb,  who  was  at  that  time  a  young  graduate  and  school 
teacher  and  two  years  later  became  pastor  of  a  Ger- 
man church  in  London.  Steinmeyer  was  an  attractive 
preacher.  Large  audiences  were  always  in  attendance 
upon  his  ministrations.  He  awakened  much  interest, 
also,  among  the  students.  He  did  not,  however,  attain 
to  the  eminence  as  a  scholar  or  a  public  speaker  which 
was  gained  by  his  successor  in  subsequent  years.  Lange 
• — the  author  of  the  voluminous  and  burdensome  Com- 
mentary on  the  'Bible,  which  was  translated  and  pub- 
lished in  our  country  under  the  editorship  of  the  late 

235 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

Professor  Philip  Schaff — was  lecturing,  in  that  semester, 
on  Biblical  Theology  and  the  History  of  Doctrines;  and 
Albrecht  Ritschl,  then  a  young  man  of  thirty-four  years, 
on  Doctrinal  Theology.  Ritschl's  later  prominence  in 
the  German  theological  world  was,  in  these  earlier  days, 
only  a  matter  of  anticipation  on  the  part  of  his  more 
intimate  acquaintance  and  friends. 

Several  of  the  most  distinguished  theological  scholars 
and  professors  at  that  period  were  holding  positions  in 
other  universities  than  the  two  which  I  have  mentioned. 
Tholuck  and  Julius  Muller  were  in  Halle;  Ewald  and 
Dorner,  at  Gottingen;  and  others  elsewhere.  Students 
from  our  country  who  were  devoting  themselves  to  the- 
ology only,  or  even  to  the  exegetical  department  of  it, 
were  wont  to  spend  the  whole,  or  at  least  a  part,  of  the 
time  at  their  command  under  such  teachers.  But,  in 
my  own  case,  the  uncertainties  of  the  future  and  the  orig- 
inal purpose  with  which  I  visited  Europe  occasioned  less 
unity  of  plan,  and  made  the  work  in  Bonn  and  Berlin 
seem  more  desirable  and  the  opportunities  afforded  in 
those  cities  more  advantageous.  I  came  in  contact,  ac- 
cordingly, with  the  men  whose  names  I  have  just  men- 
tioned, only  as  I  was  a  listener  to  their  lectures  on  brief 
visits  to  their  universities.  They  were  all  of  them,  with 
the  exception  of  Dorner,  men  of  fifty-five  to  sixty  years 
of  age.  I  can  scarcely  realize  that  they  were  no  older, 
as  I  try  to  recall  them.  But  they  lived  for  twenty  years 
after  that  time,  and  rendered  much  service  to  the  cause 
of  learning. 

Of  the  three  most  eminent  New  Testament  exegetes 
of  the  era — De  Wette,  Bleek,  and  Meyer — the  first  had 
already,  seven  years  earlier,  finished  his  career,  and  the 
last  had  no  university  position.  Bleek  was  still  lecturing 
at  Bonn,  but  he  was  drawing  near  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
He  died,  three  years  afterwards,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six. 
236 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Meyer  was  seven  years  younger  than  Bleek.  He  was 
then  in  the  midst  of  theworkof  preparing  and  publishing 
one  of  the  editions  of  his  Commentaries.  It  is  a  matter 
of  regret  to  me  that  I  did  not  hear  Bleek,  for,  as  a  com- 
mentator and  writer  on  the  New  Testament,  he  has 
always,  in  my  subsequent  years,  appeared  to  me  to  be 
exceedingly  able,  and  also  very  satisfactory  to  an  open- 
minded  and  earnest  student  of  the  Bible.  But  I  was 
then  limiting  myself  to  another  line  of  studies,  and  the 
opportunity  passed  by.  The  three  men,  however,  had 
all  the  influence  and  helpful  power  for  me,  after  the  be- 
ginning of  my  career  as  an  exegetical  scholar,  which 
either  I  or  they  could  reasonably  have  desired,  and  I 
bear  them  in  mind  as  among  the  teachers  of  both  my 
earlier  and  my  later  manhood. 

In  the  field  of  Biblical  scholarship  during  the  years 
of  my  European  life  and  the  period  that  followed  it, 
there  was,  comparatively  speaking,  a  freedom  from 
conflicts  relating  to  what  may  be  regarded  as  the  most 
fundamental  questions.  The  earlier  controversies — 
even  those  of  most  recent  date — had,  in  the  main,  passed 
by,  or  had  at  least  lost,  for  the  time,  much  of  their 
energy.  The  renewal  of  the  old  warfare,  or  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  one,  was  a  matter  pertaining  to  the  future. 
The  forces  of  the  scholarly  life  were,  accordingly,  given 
in  largest  measure  to  the  work  of  interpretation.  Bibli- 
cal scholarship  was  exegetical  scholarship,  and  the  effort 
of  the  New  Testament  teacher,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
student,  was  to  discover  fully  and  precisely  what  Christ 
and  the  apostles  meant  by  the  words  recorded  in  the 
sacred  writings,  and  not  so  much  to  determine  whether 
they  had  used  these  words,  or  whether  the  books  which 
profess  to  record  them  were  written  by  the  authors 
whose  names  they  bear.  I  remember  hearing  Dr. 
Woolsey,  who  was  himself  a  very  able  New  Testament 
237 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

scholar,  remark,  in  the  later  sixties,  that  the  assault  of 
the  hostile  critics  on  the  Johannean  authorship  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  was,  as  he  thought,  already  so  success- 
fully overcome,  that  that  question  in  the  controversy 
might  be  regarded  as  finally  settled.  His  view  of  the 
matter — in  the  light  of  the  opening  years  of  the  new 
century — seems  not  to  have  been  correct.  But  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  opinion  of  so  intelligent,  calm,  and  judi- 
cious a  scholar  as  he  ever  showed  himself  to  be,  is  indica- 
tive of  the  condition  of  things  at  the  time. 

The  exegetical  scholar  thus  had,  in  a  special  sense, 
the  field  for  himself,  and  also  had  a  large  measure  of 
peace  within  it.  There  was  a  kind  of  completeness  in 
his  peculiar  and  distinctive  work.  He  was  able  to  devote 
himself  to  it,  and  to  enjoy  it,  with  a  certain  freedom 
from  weighty  responsibilities  outside  of  its  limits. 
Moreover,  exegesis  had  already  assumed  in  Germany 
what  it  was  soon  to  begin  to  assume  in  our  own  country 
— its  fitting  position  among  the  departments  of  theology. 
It  was  no  longer  to  be  merely  preparatory,  and  hence 
subordinate,  to  the  doctrinal  department,  but  was  to  be 
recognized  as  having  an  independence  of  its  own,  and 
as  dealing  with  that  which  is  fundamental  and  all  im- 
portant. It  had,  for  these  reasons,  an  attractiveness  as 
a  sphere  for  a  young  scholar's  life-work,  which  was  of 
a  peculiar  character.  It  had  also  elements  pertaining  to 
it,  as  such  a  sphere,  which  rendered  the  knowledge  of 
the  German  methods  in  the  highest  degree  valuable,  and 
the  influences  derived  from  them  most  beneficial.  The 
period  was  certainly  a  fortunate  one  for  any  student  who 
possessed  capacities  and  tastes  for  this  order  of  studies. 
It  was  a  period  in  which  a  sojourn  in  the  "fatherland" 
could  give  him  the  gifts  which  he  most  needed  and 
which  would  be  for  him  a  continuous  life-impulse  in 
his  personal  working,  as  well  as  a  life-imparting  power 
in  his  work  for  others. 

238 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     L  I  F  £     AND     MEN 

The  theological  world  changes  with  the  movement  of 
time — even  as  does  the  world  of  medicine,  or  science, 
or  philosophy.  The  era  of  exegetical  scholarship  as  I 
have  described  it  has,  in  the  more  recent  years,  passed, 
as  we  may  say,  into  the  era  of  the  so-called  higher 
criticism,  or  of  the  old  questions  rising  with  a  new 
energy  or  in  a  new  form.  Whether  the  "fatherland" 
has  as  much  for  the  young  Biblical  students  of  the  pres- 
ent, or  will  have  for  those  of  the  early  future,  may  be 
a  question  for  the  men  of  the  new  time  to  determine. 
We  whose  youth  belonged  to  the  earlier  days  have  no 
doubts,  I  am  sure,  as  to  what  it  gave  to  us. 

The  student  life  in  the  University  at  Berlin,  so  far  as 
I  had  the  opportunity  to  observe  it,  was  more  like  that 
of  the  professional  schools  of  law,  medicine,  and 
theology  in  our  country,  than  that  of  our  undergraduate 
colleges.  It  had  somewhat  more  of  this  higher  char- 
acter, as  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  manhood  in  its 
contrast  with  boyhood,  even  than  that  which  was  found 
in  the  smaller  German  universities.  That  this  should 
have  been  the  fact  is  not  unnatural,  since  the  institution 
was  located  in  a  great  city  where  the  membership  was 
widely  separated  both  in  residence  and  in  the  matter  of 
personal  work.  The  young  men  who  attended  its 
courses  of  lectures  were,  for  this  reason,  more  likely  to 
be  affected  by  the  influences  of  maturer  years,  while  they 
had  less  opportunity  for  intimate  acquaintance  or  fre- 
quent association  with  one  another. 

As  for  the  foreign  students  in  attendance  at  that 
period,  I  think  they  were  in  large  measure  outside  of 
this  peculiar  life,  whatever  there  may  have  been  of  it; 
and,  in  general,  they  had  comparatively  little  desire  to 
participate  to  any  considerable  degree  in  the  privileges 
or  pleasures  which  it  offered.  It  may  fitly  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  number  of  foreign  students — certainly,  of 

239 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

those  speaking  our  own  language — was  much  smaller 
then  than  it  is  now.  They  were,  for  the  most  part,  men 
who  had  connected  themselves  with  the  University  with 
a  serious  purpose  and  for  a  limited  period.  They  de- 
voted their  time  and  energies,  accordingly,  to  the  end 
which  they  had  in  view — a  more  complete  preparation 
for  their  chosen  life-work,  upon  which  they  were  expect- 
ing soon  to  enter.  Even  in  Bonn,  which  was  a  city  of 
only  twenty  thousand  inhabitants,  and  where  the  Uni- 
versity had  not  more  than  one-third  or  one-half  of  the 
number  enrolled  in  its  membership  as  compared  with 
that  in  Berlin,  the  same  fact  with  reference  to  the  foreign 
students  was  quite  noticeable. 

The  period  of  my  residence  in  Bonn  was  the  summer. 
At  that  season  a  considerable  number  of  students  re- 
sorted thither  because  of  the  attractiveness  of  the  place 
— leaving  other  universities  for  the  second  semester  of 
the  year.  Of  this  number,  a  certain  portion  had  little 
desire  to  prosecute  their  studies,  or  to  devote  themselves 
to  anything  beyond  the  pleasures  incident  to  youthful 
life  and  companionship.  Attendance  at  lectures  being 
entirely  voluntary,  this  class  of  young  men  became  con- 
spicuous for  their  uniform  absence  from  the  exercises, 
rather  than  for  their,  even  occasional,  presence.  Others 
also,  whose  plans  and  purposes  in  regard  to  their 
studies  were  more  serious  than  were  those  of  the  persons 
just  mentioned,  yielded  themselves  from  time  to  time  to 
the  attractiveness  of  the  life  outside,  or  to  the  temptation 
which  was  attendant  upon  the  University  freedom,  and 
as  a  consequence  failed  of  regularity  in  devotion  to  the 
daily  lectures.  What  has  been  said  of  those  who  were 
on  Professor  Ritter's  list  of  hearers  was  proportionately 
true  of  the  young  men  on  other  lists.  But  the  working 
men  were  in  large  numbers.  They  were  the  men  who 
gave  tone  to  the  university  life  and  determined,  as  we 
may  say,  its  atmosphere.  The  hold  of  the  University, 
240 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

moreover,  upon  such  as  were  thoughtless,  or  neglectful, 
was  greater  than  it  might  have  been  under  other  condi- 
tions, or  would  have  been,  even  under  similar  circum- 
stances, in  some  other  countries.  This  secure  hold  upon 
all  was  due  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  state,  which 
made  the  satisfactory  passing  of  the  examinations  at 
the  close  of  the  university  years  or  courses  essential  to 
the  most  successful  entrance  of  the  student  upon  his 
life-work.  At  some  period,  accordingly,  in  the  student's 
academic  career — whether  in  term-time  or,  as  the  case 
might  be  and  often  was,  in  the  vacation  seasons — study, 
which  had  meaning  and  earnestness  in  it  assumed,  even 
for  the  idler,  the  place  of  play  or  of  devotion  to  his 
own  sweet  will.  The  teachers  and  authorities  were  able 
to  overlook,  or  regard  with  a  kind  of  indulgence, 
irregularities  in  attendance,  or  neglect  of  special  duties 
which  continued  for  a  time,  since  they  knew  that  such 
continuance  must  cease  when  the  nearer  approach  of  the 
fateful  period  should  give  full  emphasis  to  its  own 
imperative  demands. 

I  must  acknowledge,  however,  that  it  was  a  matter  of 
some  surprise  to  me — as  a  stranger  to  the  customs  in  this 
regard — when  I  first  found  that  men  on  the  lists  who 
had  rarely,  if  ever,  during  the  semester  presented  them- 
selves in  the  lecture-room,  received  at  its  end  the  same 
testimonial  of  faithful  and  punctual  attendance,  which 
was  given  to  myself  and  others,  in  whose  case  the  virtue 
of  regularity  in  fulfilling  this  duty  had  been  more  mani- 
fest. And  yet,  as  I  recall  the  old  days,  after  so  long 
a  time,  I  feel  that  I  could  have  signed  a  most  kindly 
statement,  if  not  that  particular  testimonial,  on  behalf 
of  the  younger  portion  of  those  who  were  then,  in  name 
at  least,  my  fellow-students,  even  though  the  outer 
world,  in  that  delightful  summer,  seemed  more  winsome 
to  their  thoughts  and  desires,  than  diH  the  world  within. 

The  city,  with  its  green  park  and  shaded  walks,  and 
241 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  country  near  it  on  either  side,  offered,  at  that  season, 
almost  every  attraction  in  the  way  of  outdoor  life  which 
could  be  desired.  The  city  itself  was  situated  just  at 
the  opening  of  the  beauties  of  the  Rhine-land.  The 
hills  and  valleys  which  were  close  upon  its  boundaries 
were  so  charming  that  one  could  never  weary  of  them. 
The  so-called  Seven  Mountains — Drachenfels  and  the 
rest — at  a  distance  of  only  a  few  miles  southward 
bordered  the  landscape  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the 
river,  and  filled  the  mind  of  the  beholder  with  joy  as 
they  reflected  the  sunlight  in  the  peaceful  hours  of  the 
later  afternoon.  The  river  itself  was  ever  tempting 
youthful  energy  and  enthusiasm  to  spend  the  hours  in 
sailing  on  its  surface  towards  the  hills,  or  wandering 
along  its  shores  to  find  new  beauties  or  new  scenes  of 
interest.  It  seemed  to  be  the  ideal  region  fitted  for  the 
enjoyment  of  the  ideal  summer.  We  older  men — 
whether  strangers,  or  of  the  home-country — could  resist 
the  temptation,  because  of  our  years  and  of  the  demands 
of  life  which  were  so  near  to  us;  or  we  could  yield  to  it 
when  the  hours  were  less  full  of  duty.  But  the  younger 
men  were  in  the  spring  and  joyousness  of  their  youth, 
and  if  the  world's  beauty  was  for  the  time  more  to  them 
than  the  world's  philosophy,  they  might  be  forgiven. 
The  serious  days  and  the  sterner  duties  would  come 
later,  when  they  had,  like  us,  moved  farther  on  in  their 
life's  progress. 

The  city  of  Berlin  had,  in  1856,  a  population  of  not 
more  than  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  When  I 
revisited  it  forty  years  afterwards,  in  1896,  its  popula- 
tion had  increased  to  seventeen  hundred  thousand,  and 
wonderful  changes  had  taken  place  which  had  made  the 
city,  in  a  new  and  higher  sense,  one  of  the  great  capitals 
of  Europe.  As  I  wandered  about  the  streets,  I  recalled 
many  of  the  old  scenes  and  old  places,  but  growth  was 
242 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

manifest  everywhere,  and  the  rush  of  business  and  of 
cosmopolitan  life  appeared  to  have  banished  forever  the 
greater  simplicity  of  the  earlier  time.  The  city  seemed 
less  fitted  to  be  the  home  of  a  university  than  it  had 
been  when  I  first  knew  it  as  a  young  student.  Certainly 
the  University  had  become  a  smaller  part  of  the  city's 
wide-extended  life.  The  professors  of  my  student  days 
had,  all  of  them,  finished  their  life-work.  Their  places 
had  been  filled  by  scholars  of  a  second,  or  even  a  third 
generation — scholars,  some  of  whom  had  received  in- 
struction, or  incentive  to  effort  in  the  sphere  of  learning, 
from  their  lectures  and  their  published  writings.  The 
University  building,  however,  remained  as  it  was  forty 
years  before,  and  as  I  entered  one  or  two  of  the  lecture- 
rooms,  it  seemed  as  if  the  very  same  young  men  who 
had  been  my  contemporaries  might  enter  at  any  moment 
and  arrange  themselves  as  listeners  on  the  same  seats, 
with  the  same  attire  and  appearance.  But  no — those 
companions  in  study  whom  I  met  in  other  days  had 
moved  onward  in  life's  work  as  I  had  done,  and  some  of 
them  were  perchance  thinking,  as  I  was,  of  the  changes 
which  time  had  wrought  in  the  world  and  in  themselves. 
If  such  was  indeed  their  thought,  how  many  pleasant 
memories  of  the  earlier  years,  and  of  the  years  that 
followed,  it  may  have  gathered  about  itself  for  each 
and  all! 

The  changes  which  time  had  wrought — my  European 
student-years  began  while  Frederick  William  IV  was 
the  King  of  Prussia,  and  while  he  was  in  the  full  exercise 
of  his  regal  power.  They  ended  in  the  very  early  part 
of  the  regency  of  his  brother — then  the  Crown-Prince 
— who  afterwards  became  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
William  I.  The  regency,  which  was  established  because 
of  infirmity  that  had  come  upon  the  King,  continued 
until  his  death,  in  1861.  The  marriage  of  the  young 
Crown  Prince,  subsequently  the  Emperor  Frederick  III, 

243 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

and  the  Princess  Victoria  of  England  took  place  in 
1858,  and  1  well  remember  the  enthusiastic  reception 
which  was  given  to  their  youthful  Highnesses  during 
the  last  winter  of  my  residence  in  Berlin. 

All  this  seems  indeed  a  long  way  back  in  the  past — 
a  past  era  of  history, — as  we  look  upon  it  from  the 
point  of  view  of  to-day.  It  was  a  time  when  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  German  Empire  was  a  thought 
utterly  foreign  to  the  minds  of  most  men,  and  a  thought 
of  the  far  distance  in  the  future  even  for  those  to  whom 
it  sometimes  presented  itself;  a  time  when  a  united  Italy 
was  only  a  dream  of  a  few  patriots,  and  a  heroic  pur- 
pose of  Victor  Emmanuel  and  Cavour  which  gave  as  yet 
only  the  faintest  promise  of  its  fulfillment;  a  time  when 
the  imperial  power  of  Louis  Napoleon  was  rising  to 
greater  heights  of  absolutism  and  of  imagined  glory 
with  every  succeeding  year;  a  time  when  Russia  had  but 
lately  passed  from  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  I 
to  that  of  his  son  Alexander,  and  had  not  as  yet  realized 
the  change  which  came  through  the  emancipation  of  the 
serfs;  a  time  when  Lord  Palmerston,  Lord  Derby,  and 
Lord  John  Russell  were  the  men  of  greatest  influence  or 
authority  in  English  public  affairs;  a  time  when,  in  our 
own  country,  the  great  conflict  between  slavery  and  free- 
dom had  reached  the  extreme  limits  of  earnest  and  even 
angry  discussion,  and  was  already  threatening,  though 
men  did  not  yet  fully  realize  it,  to  become  a  conflict  of 
arms.  It  was  the  time  of  the  opening  years  of  the 
half-century  which  has  now  just  come  to  its  end — the 
most  interesting  half-century,  perhaps,  of  the  world's 
history.  I  cannot  repress  the  thought  that  the  men  who 
have  witnessed  the  closing  of  this  eventful  period,  and 
who  also  saw,  when  they  were  in  the  maturity  of  their 
early  manhood,  its  beginning,  have  had  a  peculiar  hap- 
piness in  the  allotment  of  their  life-time.  The  ordering 
of  my  own  life,  and  of  that  of  others,  who  like  myself 
244 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

had  the  privilege  of  seeing  the  European  world  in  those 
earlier  days,  held  in  itself,  and  as  its  gift,  a  special  meas- 
ure of  this  happiness. 

It  was  my  good  fortune,  during  the  last  autumn  and 
winter  of  my  residence  in  Berlin,  to  be  closely  associated 
with  three  friends  whom  I  had  known  in  their  college 
years.  They  were  members,  respectively,  of  the  classer 
of  1855,  I^56,  and  1857 — the  three  classes  with  which 
I  had  been  brought  into  most  intimate  connection  while 
I  was  holding  my  office  as  tutor  in  the  College.  Our 
relations  were  now  those  of  friendship  only,  but  by 
mutual  consent  we  formed  a  plan  of  spending  our  even- 
ings together  and,  as  I  was  the  oldest  of  the  company, 
of  making  my  apartment  the  place  for  our  meeting. 

The  three  young  men  were  William  Wheeler,  Lewis 
R.  Packard,  and  Storrs  O.  Seymour.  Wheeler  gave 
himself  to  the  legal  profession  on  his  return  to  his  home, 
but,  after  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  in  1861, 
he  enlisted  as  a  soldier  in  behalf  of  the  Union.  He 
became  a  Lieutenant  and,  subsequently,  a  Captain  of 
Artillery,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  some  of  the  more 
important  battles  of  the  war,  particularly  that  at  Gettys- 
burg, which  was  a  decisive  turning-point  in  the  great 
conflict.  On  the  twenty-second  of  June,  1864,  in  the 
battle  at  Gulp's  Farm,  near  Marietta,  in  Georgia,  he 
met  his  death.  Packard  was  offered  a  tutorship  at  Yale 
in  the  year  1859  and,  as  the  result  of  his  successful  work 
in  this  office,  he  was  promoted  to  the  position  of  Assist- 
ant Professor  in  1863,  and  four  years  later  to  that  of 
Professor  in  the  Greek  department,  so  that  his  subse- 
quent life  was  entirely  passed  at  Yale.  Seymour,  now 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Seymour,  of  Litchfield,  Conn.,  has  had  an 
honorable  career  as  a  clergyman  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  He  is  active  as  an  official  in  the  Diocese  of 
Connecticut,  and  is  very  highly  esteemed  both  in  his  own 

245 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

parish  and  throughout  the  State.  They  were  wont  in 
those  pleasant  days  of  our  foreign  life  to  give  me,  in  an 
affectionate  way,  the  title  of  "venerable."  I  suppose 
that,  in  reality,  I  seemed  old  to  their  youthful  minds. 
I  had  just  reached  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  while  they 
were  twenty-one  or  twenty-two.  Twenty-nine  has  in  it, 
for  one  who  has  just  passed  his  majority,  more  of  the 
element  of  venerable  years — so  it  appears  to  me  now — 
than  threescore  and  ten  has  for  the  one  who,  having 
reached  it,  looks  at  or  upon  himself.  But  life,  in  the 
varying  estimate  we  put  upon  it  as  we  move  onward,  is 
a  strange  thing  indeed.  The  men  who  are  ten  years 
older  than  ourselves  seem  so  far  beyond  us.  We  never 
get  any  nearer  to  them  than  we  were  at  the  beginning. 
Those  who  are  ten  years  younger  than  we  are  seem  ever 
young — too  young,  sometimes,  to  carry  the  burdens  and 
responsibilities  of  our  own  age. 

William  Wheeler  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and 
charming  young  men  whom  I  have  ever  known.  His 
mind  was  eager  for  all  knowledge,  joyous  in  all  elevated 
thought,  sparkling  in  its  intelligence  and  enthusiasm, 
awake  to  everything  beautiful,  full  of  self-propelling 
impulse,  and  as  clear  in  its  apprehension  as  it  was  wide- 
reaching  in  its  happy  movement.  He  had  a  most  de- 
lightful humor,  peculiar  to  and  characteristic  of  himself 
— a  humor  which  always  manifested  the  intellectual  ele- 
ment pertaining  to  it,  and  which  was  consequently  most 
pleasingly  stimulative  to  other  minds.  He  possessed 
much  of  the  scholarship  which  should  characterize 
the  cultured  gentleman — a  scholarship  which  is  far  more 
rare  in  our  age  and  country  than  it  well  might  be.  He 
was  a  generous  minded,  generous  hearted  youth — one 
the  fountain  of  whose  youthfulness  would  never  have 
lost  the  freshness  of  its  upspringing  and  its  outflowing, 
had  he  lived  to  the  latest  age.  His  face  had  unusual 
manly  beauty — a  beauty  which  increased  as  he  moved 
246 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

onward  in  the  manly  years.  It  mirrored  forth  the  mental 
life  behind  it  most  attractively,  and  was  winsome  by 
reason  of  its  thoughtful  and  happy  outlook.  His  eye 
indicated  the  quickness  of  his  intelligence  and  the  ardor 
of  his  intellectual  enthusiasm.  His  command  of  lan- 
guage was  quite  uncommon,  as  was  also  his  command 
of  the  knowledge  which  he  had  gained  by  reading.  He 
had,  in  consequence,  an  ease  and  richness  in  conversation 
which  rendered  him  a  most  agreeable  companion. 
Withal  there  was  in  his  nature  a  spirituelle  element  that 
adapted  him  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  higher  order 
of  friendship — the  friendship  that  exists  between  cul- 
tivated and  magnanimous  men. 

It  was  with  the  inspiration  of  enthusiastic  and  gen- 
erous youth  that  he  gave  himself  to  the  service  of  his 
country,  when  its  call  came  to  him,  as  it  did  to  so  many 
of  his  generation  in  their  early  manhood.  The  senti- 
ment which  moved  him  had  in  it  as  much  of  noble 
generosity  as  it  had  of  high  enthusiasm.  It  was  the 
sentiment  of  truest  patriotism,  involving  the  readiness 
for  whatever  of  self-sacrifice  the  cause  might  demand, 
even  to  the  offering  up  of  life  itself.  The  future  proved 
that  for  him  the  sacrifice  was  to  reach  the  utmost  limit. 
But  as  he  had  entered  upon  the  soldier's  work  with 
serious  thoughtfulness,  he  did  not  ever,  as  he  went  for- 
ward, put  away  from  his  mind's  vision  the  possibility 
of  the  ending,  and  when  the  possibility  was  changed 
into  a  reality,  he  met  the  fate  appointed  for  him  with 
the  courage  of  a  heroic  soul.  He  whom  the  gods  love 
dies  young,  is  the  ancient  saying.  This  saying  seems 
often  in  human  experience  to  find  its  fulfillment.  The 
word  of  a  Christian  believer,  which  I  heard  years  ago 
and  have  oftentimes  recalled  to  mind,  is  no  doubt  more 
full  of  truth,  as  well  as  of  comfort.  God  who  is  our 
Father  has,  as  we  may  believe,  worlc  for  His  younger 
children  to  do,  in  the  greater  world  beyond  us,  as  well 

247 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

as  for  His  older  ones;  and  His  call  comes  to  each  and 
all  in  the  best  time  for  themselves  and  for  the  well-being 
of  His  Kingdom.  The  mind  of  a  youth  like  William 
Wheeler  must  have  opened  with  almost  infinite  delight 
upon  the  thoughts  and  life  of  the  unseen  world. 

Mr.  Packard  was  very  well  known  in  the  College,  as 
a  tutor  or  professor,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  From 
1863  to  1872  he  was  the  younger  colleague  of  Professor 
James  Hadley  in  the  Greek  department.  Though  not 
possessed  of  all  the  remarkable  gifts  of  that  eminent 
scholar,  he  was  his  worthy  companion  in  classical  studies, 
and,  as  all  within  the  academic  community  felt,  he  was 
fully  adequate  to  the  carrying  forward  of  the  depart- 
ment with  honor  to  himself  and  the  institution  when,  at 
Mr.  Hadley's  death,  the  chief  responsibility  was  laid 
upon  him.  As  a  scholar,  he  was  accurate  and  exact, 
intelligent  and  appreciative,  awake  to  the  richness  and 
beauty  of  Greek  thought  and  the  Greek  language,  and 
ever  active,  within  this  sphere,  in  extending  his  knowl- 
edge and  widening  his  field  of  vision.  His  face  was  so 
strikingly  of  the  Greek  type,  that  it  seemed  as  if  nature 
had  fitted  him  for  the  position  in  life  which  he  was 
called  to  fill.  The  inward  man,  as  the  years  moved  on, 
answered  more  and  more  completely  to  the  outward. 
He  taught  the  language  as  one  who  loved  it — as  one 
to  whom  it  was  the  best  of  all  tongues.  In  his  work  of 
teaching  he  was  faithful;  being  strict  in  his  requirements, 
but  ready  to  guide  those  who,  on  their  part,  responded 
to  his  efforts  and  instructions.  This  strictness  was,  as  he 
thought,  necessary  for  the  furtherance  of  scholarship. 
In  accordance  with  the  tendency  and  custom  of  the 
period,  he  devoted  himself  in  larger  measure  to  the 
linguistic  side  of  teaching  than  his  successors  of  the 
present  day  are  wont  to  do.  He  was  not  forgetful  of 
the  literary  side,  however,  as  if  he  considered  the  gram- 
matical scholar — to  the  exclusion  of  the  cultured  one — 
248 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  only  proper  result  and  product  of  college  education. 
The  best  students  appreciated  what  he  accomplished 
for  them  on  both  sides,  and  carried  away  from  their 
undergraduate  years  a  very  high  esteem  for  him  as  a 
man  of  ability  and  learning,  from  whom  they  had  gained 
much  for  themselves. 

Professor  Packard  was  not  as  ardent  and  emotional  as 
his  friend  Wheeler  was — the  two  were  most  intimate  in 
their  companionship.  It  would  have  been  better  for 
him,  perhaps,  if  he  had  been.  But  he  was  of  a  different 
constitution  and  nature.  He  had  not  the  Greek  char- 
acter in  this  respect.  He  was,  however,  winsome  in  his 
association  with  other  men,  and  had  many  attached  and 
devoted  friends.  All  who  knew  him  were  assured  of 
his  uprightness,  his  sincerity,  his  unselfish  affection,  and 
his  truly  manly  spirit.  His  long  and  courageous  struggle 
with  an  hereditary  disease  was  but  the  manifestation  of 
the  strength  and  vigor  of  his  native  endowments.  His 
conscientious  devotion  to  truth  and  duty  indicated  the 
same  strength,  only  in  another  line  of  the  soul's  move- 
ment, and  it  established  in  all  minds  the  conviction  that 
he  was,  in  the  best  sense,  a  genuine  Christian  man — one 
who  would  ever  stand  firm,  and  could  ever  be  trusted. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  his  work  as  an  instructor, 
Professor  Packard  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  theology, 
and  in  the  later  years  he  preached  occasionally,  both  in 
the  College  Chapel  and  elsewhere.  His  sermons  were 
full  of  thought  which  was  fresh  and  peculiar  to  himself. 
They  were  original  and  suggestive  in  their  character, 
and  were  written  in  the  clearest  and  purest  English  style. 
The  student  audiences,  as  well  as  the  Faculty  and  the 
other  members  of  the  congregation  in  the  Chapel, 
listened  always  with  much  interest  when  he  addressed 
them,  and  gladly  welcomed  him  to  the  pulpit  whenever 
he  was  able  to  occupy  it. 

In  two  different  years,  with  a  considerable  interval 
249 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

between  them,  he  was  the  chief  officer  of  the  American 
Classical  School  at  Athens.  No  one  in  the  country,  at 
the  time,  was  better  fitted  for  such  a  position.  In  the 
former  of  these  years,  he  enjoyed  greatly  the  work 
connected  with  the  office,  as  well  as  the  opportunities  for 
scholarly  and  archaeological  research  which  it  afforded 
him.  He  was,  also,  exceedingly  helpful  to  the  students 
who  were  in  attendance  at  the  school.  In  the  latter 
year,  though  much  enfeebled  when  he  left  home,  he 
entered  upon  his  duties  with  earnestness  and  with  hope. 
But  disappointment  followed  after  a  brief  season,  as  his 
malady  made  progress  and  the  prospects  for  the  future 
were  overshadowed.  Still,  with  his  wonted  strength  of 
purpose,  he  rendered  his  service,  according  to  the  pos- 
sibilities that  were  open  for  him,  to  the  students  who 
were  under  his  care  and  guidance,  until  the  end  of  his 
official  term  was  reached.  He  was  able  to  return  to 
his  native  land  and  to  his  home  in  New  Haven,  but  his 
life  continued  only  for  a  few  weeks  after  his  arrival. 
He  died  on  the  26th  of  October,  1884.  To  the  grad- 
uates of  the  years  since  that  time  he  is  known  only 
as  one  of  the  honored  teachers  of  an  earlier  period,  but 
to  the  minds  of  many  of  their  predecessors  the  thought 
of  him  brings  pleasant  memories  of  a  faithful  and  true 
man. 


250 


XIV 

Yale  Divinity  School,  and  Its  Older  Faculty 

TWO  months  after  my  return  from  Europe — on 
the  1 6th  of  September,  1858 — I  received  an 
appointment  from  the  Corporation  of  the 
College  as  Assistant  Professor  of  Biblical  Literature. 
At  that  time  the  election  to  an  Assistant  Professorship 
carried  with  it  the  assurance  of  permanency,  and  all  the 
other  prerogatives  and  privileges  which  pertained  to  the 
full  professorships.  The  term  "Assistant"  was  simplv 
indicative  of  the  fact  that  there  was  an  older  officer  in 
the  department  who  had  not  as  yet  resigned  his  position, 
and  with  whom,  in  a  more  or  less  limited  measure, 
the  younger  appointee  was  to  be  associated.  In  my  own 
case,  which  was  quite  unique  in  this  respect,  this  con- 
nection or  association  was  from  the  outset,  in  accordance 
with  the  understanding  and  purpose  of  the  Governing 
Board,  merely  nominal.  In  reality,  the  Professorship 
of  Sacred  Literature,  which  had  previously  included  in 
its  sphere  of  study  and  instruction  both  the  Hebrew  and 
Greek  Scriptures,  was  divided  at  this  time  into  two 
chairs — the  one  being  devoted,  in  the  duties  pertaining 
to  it,  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other  to  the  New 
Testament.  My  venerable  elder  colleague,  Professor 
Gibbs,  took  thereafter  the  work  in  the  former  section 
of  the  department,  while  that  belonging  to  the  latter 
was  assigned  to  me. 

The  appointment  to  an  Assistant,  Professorship  in 
these  later  days,  when  our  institutions  have  developed 
so  greatly  in  every  way,  has  much  less  significance  than 

•251 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

it  had  then.  It  gives  no  absolute  assurance  that  the  one 
who  receives  it  will  be  continued  in  his  office  beyond  a 
certain  very  limited  number  of  years.  Even  less  does  it 
give  a  promise  of  promotion  to  a  higher  grade  when 
the  limited  term  expires.  The  young  scholar  is  afforded 
opportunities  and  chances,  indeed — chances  and  oppor- 
tunities which  are  generally  favorable,  rather  than  un- 
•cavorable — but  he  is  still  on  probation,  and  his  future  is 
uncertain.  Moreover,  in  these  days,  when  the  oldest 
Professor  in  a  particular  branch  of  learning  is,  at  least 
in  the  larger  universities,  commonly  constituted  the 
Head  of  the  department,  the  younger  scholar  is  con- 
tinued in  a  subordinate  condition  during  his  term  of 
trial,  and  thus  cannot  enjoy  the  independence  which  was 
the  privilege  of  the  earlier  era.  In  that  sphere  of  inde- 
pendence was  found,  in  a  very  large  measure,  the  happi- 
ness of  the  position.  In  it  also,  in  my  own  case  at  least, 
and  I  think  in  the  case  of  others,  was  found  no  small 
share  of  the  forces  for  the  making  of  the  man.  At  all 
events,  the  condition  was  a  happy  one  to  be  in  from  the 
very  beginning.  I  was  my  own  master  in  my  own 
department,  and  I  knew  that  my  office  was  a  permanent 
office.  I  could  work  out  my  individual  plans  as  freely, 
and  as  much  without  interference  on  the  part  of  others, 
as  could  any  of  my  elder  associates,  and  I  could  look 
forward  with  hope  to  a  long  future. 

I  would  not  enter  upon  a  discussion  here  as  to  the 
comparative  merits  of  the  new  system  and  the  old.  The 
advantages  of  the  new  order  of  things  for  the  Univer- 
sity may  be  greater;  and  if  so,  they  may  more  than 
counterbalance  any  losses  or  disadvantages  for  the  in- 
dividual. Even  for  the  individual,  in  many  or  most 
cases,  the  sum  of  the  benefits — in  the  way  of  incentive 
to  diligence  and  faithfulness,  and  in  other  lines — may 
tie  greater  at  present.  But  this  is  a  volume  of  personal 
memories — and,  as  I  remember  the  condition  and  heeds 
252 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  our  Divinity  School  forty  years  ago  and  recall  my 
own  history  in  connection  with  it,  I  am  sure,  beyond 
a  doubt,  that  if  it  was  well  for  the  University  for  me 
to  be  in  its  work  at  all,  it  was  for  the  best  that  I  should 
have  the  independence  and  the  assurance  of  permanency 
which  were  given  me  at  that  time.  My  share,  whatever 
it  was,  in  the  re-creation  of  the  school  and  in  its  work 
of  instruction  in  the  subsequent  years,  was  of  far  more 
significance  than  it  could  have  been  under  the  more 
modern  system. 

The  Theological  Department  of  our  University  in 
September,  1858,  was  in  a  very  depressed  condition, 
and  the  outlook  for  its  future  was  quite  discouraging. 
It  had  been  for  many  years  in  a  flourishing  state — its 
reputation  being  wide-extended,  and  the  number  of  its 
students  being  large  for  that  period.  Tliere  were,  how- 
ever, two  elements  of  weakness  in  its  life,  the  seriousness 
of  which  was  not  appreciated,  at  the  time,  either  by  its 
officers  or  by  the  central  authorities  of  the  College.  The 
first  of  these  was  connected  with  the  fact  that  its  existing 
reputation — on  which  the  size  of  its  student  membership 
almost  wholly  depended — was  founded  altogether  on 
the  fame  of  its  professors,  and  especially  on  that  of  Dr. 
Nathaniel  W.  Taylor,  the  Professor  of  Doctrinal 
Theology.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  inspir- 
ing of  the  teachers  of  the  earlier  half  of  the  century. 
He  was  thus,  in  the  highest  degree,  attractive  to  young 
men.  Moreover,  he  was  the  leader  in  a  great  movement 
of  theological  and  religious  thought,  which  revolted 
against  the  narrower  orthodoxy  of  the  time,  and  turned 
towards  a  true  Christian  freedom.  The  leaders  in  such 
movements  are  wont  to  become  winsome  to  the  new 
generation,  and  to  seem  satisfactory  to  their  eager  minds 
and  deepest  desires.  So  long  as  he' and  his  system  of 
theology  held  their  full  sway,  the  institution  where  he 

253 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

lectured  gathered  to  itself  pupils,  and  was  strong  in 
its  present  realizations  and  its  future  hopes.  His  col- 
leagues co-operated  most  heartily  with  him,  acknowledg- 
ing him  as  the  chief  among  brethren.  The  school  was 
thus  full  of  intellectual  activity  and  power.  All  was 
well,  so  long  as  the  teachers  continued  in  the  strength 
of  their  life  and  their  influence.  But  there  was  no 
institutional  vitality  which  was  so  far  independent  of 
these  instructors  that  it  could  remain  undiminished  in 
case  the  forces  which  came  from  them  should  pass 
away. 

The  second  of  the  two  elements  of  weakness  was 
connected  with  the  fact  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  existing 
funds  of  the  school  to  meet  the  demands  which  the 
coming  time  must,  of  necessity,  make  in  many  lines. 
Indeed,  the  limitation  of  its  funds  throughout  the 
earlier  period  of  its  history  was  so  extreme  that  one 
can  scarcely  understand,  as  one  looks  backward,  how  the 
school  was  able  to  continue  its  existence  and  fulfill  its 
work. 

For  several  years  before  the  date  which  I  have  men- 
tioned, the  number  of  students  in  attendance,  as  the 
result  of  a  variety  of  causes,  had  been  steadily  decreas- 
ing. There  had  also  been  comparatively  little  effort,  if 
indeed  any  effort  at  all,  put  forth  in  the  way  of  securing 
a  larger  endowment,  which  was  so  greatly  needed.  The 
attention  of  the  College  government,  at  that  period,  was 
almost  exclusively  given  to  what  is  known  as  the  Aca- 
demical Department.  All  other  departments  were  out- 
side of  the  main  institution — additions  to  it.  They 
might  live,  if  they  could.  Well,  indeed,  if  they  did  sur- 
vive and  grow  strong.  But  they  were  not  the  "Old 
College;"  and  their  fate  must  be  left  to  their  own  in- 
structors, without  the  independent,  or  even  actively 
co-operative  forces  of  the  central  officials.  As  a  natural 
result  of  all  this,  the  school  in  1858  had  reached  a  point 

254 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  alarming,  and  as  it  seemed  to  many,  if  not  most,  even 
of  its  friends,  almost  hopeless  decline.  In  the  spring 
of  that  year  came  what  appeared,  as  it  were,  the  final 
calamity,  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Taylor.  He  who  had 
been,  in  the  highest  sense,  its  pillar  of  strength  had  now 
fallen,  and  it  was  not  strange  if  men  thought  that  the 
very  foundations  were  destroyed. 

It  was  just  six  months  after  Dr.  Taylor's  death  when 
I  was  called  into  the  service  of  the  school,  through  my 
appointment  to  the  New  Testament  chair.  Professor, 
afterwards  President,  Porter  was  invited,  at  the  same 
time,  to  take  the  chair  of  Systematic  Theology,  as  Dr. 
Taylor's  successor,  but  a  little  later  he  declined  the  in- 
vitation, though  he  consented  to  assume,  in  addition  to 
the  work  of  his  professorship  in  the  College,  the  re- 
sponsibility of  giving  the  lectures  on  Theology  to  the 
Seminary  students.  He  continued  for  several  years  to 
perform  the  twofold  duties  which  he  thus  took  upon 
himself. 

The  three  members  of  the  Theological  Faculty  who 
had  been  associated  with  Dr.  Taylor  since  the  beginning 
of  his  work  were  Professors  Goodrich,  Fitch,  and  Gibbs. 
Professors  Goodrich  and  Fitch  were  the  most  active  and 
efficient  persons  among  those  whose  influence  moved 
the  Corporation,  in  1822,  to  establish  the  Divinity 
School  as  a  distinct  and  separate  department  of  the  Col- 
lege. From  that  time  onward  they  had  rendered  valu- 
able service  within  the  school,  as  well  as  on  its  behalf, 
though  the  former  held  a  professorship  in  the  Academ- 
ical Department,  as  already  stated,  until  1839,  and 
the  latter  until  1852.  Professor  Gibbs  was  called  to  be 
the  Instructor  in  Sacred  Literature  in  1824.  All  of 
them  had  had  a  more  or  less  intimate  connection  with 
the  school  for  a  period  of  about  thirty-five  years  when 
I  was  asked  to  take  part  in  their  work,  and  they  were 

255 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

all  men  of  nearly  seventy  years  of  age.  They  had 
given  the  efforts  of  a  life-time,  in  large  measure,  to  the 
institution,  with  gratifying  results  in  the  way  of  success, 
yet  amid  many  limitations  and,  in  the  later  years,  with 
much  anxiety  and  discouragement.  They  were  now 
drawing  near  the  end  of  their  career,  when  the  energies 
and  inspirations  for  the  coming  time  were  already  pass- 
ing away.  The  only  member  of  the  Faculty  whose  life, 
in  the  deepest  sense,  took  hold  upon  the  future  of  the 
institution  and  was,  in  reality,  dependent  on  the  success 
or  failure  of  that  future,  was  myself.  This  fact  I  began 
to  appreciate  very  soon  after  I  entered  upon  the  duties 
of  my  office.  I  saw  that  I  must  find  the  forces  for  the 
new  era  within  my  own  mind  and  heart,  for  the  old 
forces  which  my  revered  colleagues  had  put  forth  so 
effectively  in  the  former  period  were  no  longer  available. 
The  institution  had  indeed  come  to  a  critical  turning- 
point  in  its  history,  and  its  work  must  hereafter  belong 
to  the  younger  generation. 

Dr.  Taylor  and  his  three  associates  were  remarkable 
men.  They  were  as  remarkable  in  their  differences  from 
one  another  as  they  were  in  their  individual  mental 
gifts.  Dr.  Taylor  himself  was  an  original  thinker  of 
a  high  order.  He  had  a  creative  mind  and  was  fitted 
to  be  the  founder  of  a  new  system,  whether  of  theology 
or  philosophy.  His  intellectual  powers  were  self- 
impelling,  rendering  him  ever  alive  for  the  investigation 
of  truth,  and  ever  ardent  in  the  desire  to  lay  hold  upon 
the  deepest  and  the  highest  things.  He  was  possessed 
of  that  peculiar  mental  enthusiasm  which,  by  reason  of 
its  inspiring  force  within  the  man  himself,  imparts  itself 
as  by  a  necessity  to  other  men.  He  had  a  commanding 
personality  as  he  sat  in  his  professorial  chair  in  his 
lecture-room — his  head  and  face  being  indicative  of 
greatness  and  his  eyes  suggesting  to  all  who  looked  upon 
256 


PROFESSOR    NATHANIEL    W.    TAYLOR 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

him  clearness  of  insight  and  penetrating  intelligence. 
With  the  characteristic  decisiveness  of  men  of  his  order, 
his  confidence  in  the  conclusions  which  he  reached  was 
very  strong  and  his  announcement  of  them  was,  in  an 
equal  degree,  emphatic.  He  was  dogmatic,  not  in  a  bad 
sense,  but  in  a  good  sense.  He  was  ever  ready  to  go 
through  a  process  of  reasoning  or  argumentation  with 
those  who  found  objections  to  his  views  or  were  moved 
to  oppose  them.  But  he  made  it  manifest,  in  every 
discussion,  that  in  his  own  mind  he  had  passed  through 
the  entire  domain  of  the  subject,  and  that  the  difficulties 
which  might  be  troublesome  to  those  who  presented 
them  had  been  already  met  and  set  aside  in  his  personal 
thinking.  Of  the  Pauline  type  in  many  respects,  he  had 
much  of  the  heroism  of  the  Apostle;  much  of  his  large- 
mindedness;  much  of  his  true  Christian  freedom;  and 
much  of  his  readiness  to  meet  any  and  every  adversary 
on  the  field  of  doctrine  or  of  argument.  I  have  already, 
in  another  connection  and  on  an  earlier  page,  alluded 
to  his  magnetic  power  as  a  teacher.  This  power,  in 
addition  to  its  other  manifestations  of  itself,  exhibited 
its  remarkable  character  in  the  fact  that  his  students, 
after  the  close  of  his  lectures  which,  on  each  occasion, 
continued  for  an  hour,  were  accustomed  to  remain,  of 
their  own  choice,  for  half  an  hour,  or  even  an  hour, 
longer  in  the  lecture-room  for  the  more  personal  and 
extemporaneous  discussion  with  him  of  the  themes  which 
had  been  presented.  No  better  evidence  than  this  could 
be  given  of  any  teacher's  awakening  and  stimulating 
influence.  As  a  preacher  he  had  the  same  magnetic 
power  for  very  many  of  his  hearers,  and  he  was  con- 
fessedly among  the  most  forceful  and  prominent  pulpit 
orators  of  his  time.  It  was  not  strange  that,  when  the 
establishment  of  the  Theological  School  became  a  mat- 
ter of  special  interest  and  importance,  the  thoughts  of 
those  who  were  foremost  in  the  new  undertaking  should 

257 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

have  turned,  as  if  by  a  common  impulse,  towards  him 
as  the  one  who  should  hold  the  central  place  in  its 
Faculty. 

This  volume,  which  is  one  of  personal  memories,  is 
not  an  appropriate  place  for  a  presentation  or  discussion 
of  the  theological  views  and  system  to  which  Dr.  Tay- 
lor's name  was  attached.  Such  a  discussion  indeed 
would  fail  to  awaken  the  old  interest,  even  if  it  should 
be  entered  upon  at  the  present  time.  The  questions 
which  stirred  and  agitated  the  minds  of  Christian  men 
in  our  part  of  the  world  fifty  and  sixty  years  ago  have 
passed  into  forgetfulness,  or  have  long  since  reached  a 
state  where  there  is  a  willingness  to  look  upon  them  as 
settled;  and  the  thoughts,  and  controversies  if  there  be 
such,  move  in  new  spheres  of  questioning  as  these 
modern  days  have  come  to  us.  But  as  one  who  knew 
something  of  the  earlier  era,  and  wrestled  much  with 
the  old  ideas,  I  cannot  fail  to  record  briefly  on  these 
pages  my  appreciation  of  the  service  which  that  great 
theologian  rendered,  in  his  day,  on  behalf  of  a  true  and 
genuine  Christian  freedom  of  thought  and  of  faith.  He 
knew  the  Gospel  as  Paul  knew  it — in  its  largeness  and 
fullness — in  the  freeness  of  its  offers  and  the  richness 
of  its  promises.  The  truth  which  he  felt  himself  to  have 
learned,  and  received  as  the  gift  of  Christ,  was  for  him 
the  most  precious  of  all  treasures.  With  the  ardor  of 
the  apostle  he  would  carry  it  to  all.  With  the  earnest- 
ness and  valor  of  the  Christian  soldier  he  would  contend 
for  it  against  all  enemies  and  all  errors.  Such  was 
the  sentiment  of  his  heart,  and  such  the  purpose  of  his 
life.  It  was  a  faithful  ministry — that  in  which  he 
served.  It  was  a  long  conflict — that  in  which  he  enlisted. 
But  at  the  end  the  blessing  was  secured,  and  we  of  the 
later  years  know  more  of  the  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God  because  of  its  possession.  The  heroes  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  deserve  our  honor. 
258 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Dr.  Goodrich  was  a  man  of  another  order,  as  com- 
pared with  his  friend  and  coadjutor.  I  have  written  of 
him  at  some  length  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  volume. 
The  fact  of  his  selection  at  the  beginning,  in  1817,  as 
the  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Oratory  in  the  College 
was  quite  in  harmony  with  the  characteristic  qualities  of 
his  mind.  On  his  transference  to  the  Theological  School 
twenty-two  years  afterwards,  his  activity  was  largely 
given  to  the  department  of  Sacred  Rhetoric,  though  his 
professorship,  by  its  title,  was  that  of  the  Pastoral 
Charge.  He  was,  as  has  been  already  stated,  a  rhetori- 
cian— and  a  rhetorician  also  of  the  type  of  his  own  time 
and  of  the  earlier  half  of  the  century.  He  was  a  striking 
example  of  that  type.  As  such,  he  had  much  influence 
with  his  theological  pupils.  They  saw  in  him  what  they 
desired  to  become  in  themselves  and,  as  a  consequence, 
they  were  ready  to  give  heed  to  his  instruction,  as  well 
as  to  imitate  what  was  manifested  in  his  own  personality. 

He  was,  also,  a  forceful  and  executive  man,  with  the 
disposition  and  impulses  which  pertain  to  such  men. 
In  the  line  of  executive  management  and  the  forth- 
putting  efforts  attendant  upon  it,  he  surpassed  any  and 
all  of  his  colleagues.  The  propelling  power  of  the 
institution — that  which,  apart  from  the  personal  at- 
tractiveness of  its  teachers,  carried  forward  its  life — was 
found  mainly  in  him.  Withal  he  was  one  of  its  most 
generous  friends  and  benefactors  in  its  earlier  history. 
He  filled  a  place,  accordingly,  of  great  significance  and 
importance  as  related  to  its  highest  interests. 

In  the  theological  sphere,  he  was  in  cordial  sympathy 
with  his  friend,  Dr.  Taylor,  but  he  did  not,  so  far  as  I 
remember  him,  share  in  equal  measure  his  friend's  in- 
trepid boldness  in  the  expression  of  his  views.  His 
rhetorical  nature  was,  perchance,  inconsistent  with  such 
a  degree  of  boldness.  Yet  in  his  opinions  he  was  de- 
cided and  firm,  and  as  a  man  of  administrative  capacity 
259 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

and  strength  he  was  free  from  all  wavering  when  the 
hour  for  action  arrived.  As  little  as  Dr.  Taylor,  I  think, 
was  he  tolerant  of  the  hesitation  sometimes  characteristic 
of  a  genuine  scholar.  The  minds  of  the  two  men,  though 
different  from  each  other,  were  alike  impatient  of  con- 
tinued questioning.  They  demanded,  by  reason  of  their 
native  constitution,  absolute  definiteness  of  conviction 
and  of  statement.  Through  the  force  of  his  rhetorical 
character  and  manner  he  was,  perhaps,  even  more  repres- 
sive to  an  associate  or  friend  of  evenly-balanced  mind, 
than  was  his  doctrinal  colleague  with  his  soldier-like 
freedom  of  utterance. 

Of  Professor  Goodrich's  peculiar  gifts  exhibited  in  the 
pastoral  work  in  the  College  I  have  spoken  elsewhere. 
These  gifts  rendered  him,  also,  a  very  useful  and  stimu- 
lating guide  and  helper  to  his  students  in  the  Divinity 
School,  who  were  themselves  expecting  to  enter  upon 
the  interesting  and  often  difficult  duties  of  pastoral  life. 
He  was  never  weary  of  the  work  of  conferring  with 
them  privately,  or  of  giving  to  them  the  results  of  his 
experience  and  his  wide  observation  of  men.  He  was 
a  kindly  friend  to  each  and  all  alike — a  friend  who  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  their  minds,  and  oftentimes  a 
very  deep  one  upon  their  spiritual  life. 

Professor  Goodrich  was  an  indefatigable  worker.  He 
was  a  worker  after  the  manner  and  measure  characteris- 
tic of  men  having  the  peculiar  executive  capacity  which 
pertained  to  his  nature.  Not  content  with  the  discharge 
of  the  duties  of  his  professorial  office  which,  especially  in 
the  earlier  years,  were  sufficiently  burdensome,  he  gave 
himself  to  other  tasks  involving  continuous  labor  and 
much  responsibility.  For  a  considerable  period,  he  had 
the  entire  charge  of  the  department  of  Rhetoric — his 
sphere  of  instruction  extending  even  to  the  criticism  of 
students'  compositions  and  declamations,  as  well  as  the 
careful  preparation  of  the  speakers  chosen  for  the  more 
260 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

public  exercises  of  the  annual  Commencements.  Such 
work  of  individual  criticism,  as  is  well  known  by  all 
teachers  of  experience,  is  exhaustive  both  of  time  and 
force.  It  is  wearisome  enough  to  render  one  indisposed 
to  add  other  labors,  when  it  has  been  satisfactorily  com- 
pleted. But  Dr.  Goodrich  was  always  ready  to  push 
outward  and  onward.  He  was  the  incarnation  of  energy. 
His  very  appearance,  as  he  walked  abroad  or  met  his 
classes,  indicated  ceaseless,  and  almost  restless  activity. 
In  the  years  of  his  tutorship  from  1812  to  1814,  when 
he  was  not  yet  twenty-five,  he  prepared  a  Greek  Gram- 
mar for  the  use  of  students — the  first  of  real  value  pub- 
lished in  our  country — and  subsequently  issued  new  and 
improved  editions  of  it  which  were  widely  used  for  a 
long  period.  At  a  later  time,  when  the  theological  con- 
troversies of  the  earlier  period  of  Dr.  Taylor's  career  in 
the  Theological  School  were  most  active,  he  purchased 
and  for  several  years  edited  the  Quarterly  Christian 
Spectator,  which  he  made,  as  it  were,  the  organ  of  the 
so-called  New  Haven  doctrines  and  views.  But  his 
greatest  work,  outside  of  the  limits  of  his  college  teach- 
ing, was  that  which  he  performed  in  connection  with 
Webster's  Dictionary.  Dr.  Webster  was  his  father-in- 
law,  and  almost  from  the  date  of  the  first  publication  of 
the  work  he  was  a  helper  in  the  labors  which  it  de- 
manded. At  the  death  of  Dr.  Webster  in  1843,  ne  ^e' 
came  its  chief  editor,  and  from  that  time  onward  he  was 
largely  responsible  for  it.  This  service  was  very  exact- 
ing in  respect  both  of  time  and  effort,  but  in  his  case 
there  seemed  never  to  be  a  lack  of  either.  He  had 
energy  enough  for  any  and  all  demands, — enough  to 
keep  his  own  powers  in  constant  movement  and,  at  the 
same  time,  to  give  a  continual  impulse  to  those  who  were 
associated  with  him,  or  aided  him.  The  work  on  the 
British  Orators,  which  he  published  .-eight  years  before 
his  death,  was  founded  upon  the  lectures  which  he  was 
261 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

accustomed,  for  a  long  period,  to  give  to  the  successive 
Senior  classes  in  the  College.  From  this  volume  one  can 
get  a  correct  impression — at  least,  within  certain  limits — 
of  his  character  and  style  as  a  rhetorician.  The  re- 
sults which  he  accomplished  in  such  different  lines,  as  a 
teacher,  a  scholar  and  a  pastor,  may  fitly  be  regarded  as 
extraordinary,  and  as  exhibiting  a  very  high  order  of 
effective,  as  well  as  executive  force. 

Professor  Fitch  was  less  closely  connected  with  the 
daily  life  and  work  of  the  Divinity  School  than  the 
other  members  of  its  Faculty.  In  consequence  of  the 
demands  of  his  position  as  preacher  in  the  College  pulpit, 
and  instructor  of  the  academical  students  in  Natural 
Theology  and  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,  his  opportu- 
nities for  meeting  the  members  of  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary were  quite  limited.  He  came  into  immediate  con- 
tact with  them,  however,  during  a  brief  portion  of  each 
year,  as  a  Lecturer  on  Homiletics — a  subject  which  he 
was  eminently  fitted  to  present  and  discuss.  After  his 
retirement  from  his  professorship  in  1852,  he  continued 
to  give  his  lectures  on  this  subject,  but  he  did  not  assume 
any  additional  duties  as  an  instructor  in  the  school.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  the  limitations  which  have  been  indi- 
cated, the  other  professors  always  regarded  him  as  truly 
one  of  the  theological  circle.  They  recognized  in  its 
full  measure  the  service  which  he  had  rendered  the  insti- 
tution not  only  in  its  earliest  days,  but  throughout  the 
course  of  its  history,  and  they  rejoiced  in  his  presence 
with  them. 

He  was  not  the  equal  of  Dr.  Taylor  as  a  man  of  crea- 
tive mind  and  commanding  force,  but  in  the  qualities  of 
genius  and  the  variety  of  his  mental  gifts,  he  may  be  said 
to  have  surpassed  him.  He  did  not  possess  the  executive 
ability  or  gift  of  leadership  which  belonged  to  Dr. 
Goodrich,  but  as  a  thinker  and  theologian  he  was  his 
262 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

superior.  In  regard  to  the  matter  of  public  discourse  he 
stood  apart  from  both.  He  was  almost  the  exact  oppo- 
site of  the  latter,  in  whose  addresses,  generally  of  an 
extemporaneous  character,  the  rhetorical  element  was 
pre-eminently  conspicuous,  and  at  a  very  wide  remove 
from  the  former  who,  though  he  used  a  manuscript  in  his 
preaching,  had  in  largest  measure  the  boldness  and  con- 
fidence of  the  fearless  advocate.  As  a  writer,  however, 
he  had  a  felicity  of  style  and  clearness  of  statement  which 
made  his  carefully  prepared  sermons,  in  connection  with 
the  rich  thought  that  they  contained,  very  impressive,  as 
well  as  very  attractive,  to  intelligent  hearers.  The  im- 
pressiveness  was  increased  by  reason  of  "the  tremulous 
music  of  his  voice,  which  was  so  full  of  tenderness  and 
yet  so  full  of  power" — I  quote  the  words  of  Dr.  Leonard 
Bacon  with  reference  to  him;  a  tenderness  and  power,  I 
may  add,  that  were  strikingly  manifested  in  his  reading 
of  hymns  and  other  poetry.  He  was  the  most  impres- 
sive reader  of  hymns  to  whom  I  have  ever  listened. 
Their  words,  as  he  read  them,  seemed  to  have  an  added 
sweetness  and  force  which  came  from  the  poetic  sense 
and  feeling  of  his  own  nature. 

The  nervous  sensitiveness  pertaining  to  his  physical 
constitution,  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  an 
earlier  part  of  this  volume,  had  its  effect  upon  his  teach- 
ing, as  well  as  upon  his  preaching.  It  often  proved  bur- 
densome even  in  the  utterance  of  brief  sentences,  which 
seemed  desirable  as  an  addition  to  the  written  lecture  or 
to  the  words  of  the  text-book.  Sometimes  also  it  occa- 
sioned a  certain  embarrassment  in  the  very  presence  of 
his  classes,  assembled  before  him  for  their  college  exer- 
cises, which  manifested  itself  in  his  appearance  and 
bearing.  All  this  was  less  in  its  measure  when  he  met 
the  students  of  the  professional  school,  than  when  he 
was  called  to  give  instruction  to  undergraduates  in  the 
College.  The  former  were  a  smaller  number  than  the 
263 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

latter,  and,  as  he  well  knew,  had  more  universally  the 
interest  in  their  studies  which  comes  with  maturer  years. 
The  responsibility  resting  upon  him,  therefore,  he  felt 
to  be  diminished  because  he  could  confidently  depend 
upon  them  for  earnestness  in  work  and  willing  receptivity 
of  mind. 

The  College  boys,  as  truly  as  the  members  of  the 
Divinity  School,  had  a  kindly  and,  as  it  were,  a  filial 
feeling  towards  the  Professor.  But  they  were  boys,  or 
called  themselves  so,  and  so  they  indulged  themselves 
in  pleasantries  which,  as  they  thought,  belonged  to  their 
age.  When  they  should  become  graduates  and  members 
of  the  higher  departments  of  the  institution,  it  would 
be  the  fitting  time  for  the  uniform  seriousness  of  man- 
hood. They  could,  for  the  present,  tell  one  another  of 
their  teachers'  idiosyncracies,  or  smile  at  their  peculiari- 
ties in  a  friendly  way,  even  while  they  had  for  them  a 
most  affectionate  regard.  Life  would  lose  something  of 
its  brightness  and  joyfulness,  I  think,  if  there  were  no 
college  boys. 

A  story  of  the  undergraduate  order  which  was  sug- 
gestive of  the  impression  made  by  the  Professor's  hesi- 
tancy in  extemporaneous  address,  but  which  nobody  was 
expected  to  believe,  was  put  in  circulation  for  a  brief 
time  within  the  period  of  my  tutorship.  It  was,  in  sub- 
stance, as  follows:  that  on  a  certain  evening,  when  the 
good  Doctor's  windows  were  broken  by  a  small  body  of 
noisy  and  disorderly  youths,  he  presented  himself  and 
began  to  address  them  on  the  impropriety  of  their  con- 
duct. Very  soon,  however,  he  became  embarrassed  and, 
finding  himself  unable  to  proceed  farther  in  his  discourse, 
he  paused  for  a  moment,  and  then  said,  "I  regret  that  my 
notes  are  in  my  room  upstairs,  but  if  you  will  come  here 
to-morrow  morning  at  eleven  o'clock,  I  will  read  to  you 
what  I  intended  to  say." 

264 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

I  suffer  myself  to  mention  this  story — which  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  humorous  side  of  student  life,  but  which 
had  in  it,  on  the  part  of  its  authors,  no  intentional  dis- 
respect, and  no  element  of  unkindly  feeling  towards  the 
Professor — that  I  may  make  it,  in  its  contrast,  prepara- 
tory to  the  statement  of  a  singular  fact;  namely,  that  on 
two  or  three  occasions  in  the  later  years  of  the  Pro- 
fessor's life,  I  heard  addresses  from  him  in  the  presence 
of  assemblies  of  ministers  which  were  evidently  extempo- 
raneous and  yet  were,  in  an  eminent  degree,  able  and 
successful.  Old  age  had  given  him  a  new  power,  or  the 
inspiration  of  the  hour  and  the  scene,  in  each  case,  had 
caused  him  to  forget  himself  and  his  nervous  apprehen- 
sions altogether,  and  to  dwell  for  the  time  only  in  the 
charming  region  of  the  thoughts  to  which  he  was  giving 
utterance.  Possibly  it  was  not  so  strange  as  it  seemed — 
for  he  was  a  musician  and  a  poet;  and  poetry  and  music 
are  spheres  wherein  the  mental  visions  fill  the  soul  and 
all  one's  fears  are  charmed  away. 

Professor  Gibbs  was,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word, 
the  scholar  of  the  Faculty.  He  was  a  retiring  scholar; 
a  scholar  most  evenly-balanced  in  his  judgment,  and 
hesitant  in  the  utterance  of  his  opinions;  a  scholar  so  dis- 
posed to  give  full  weight  to  both  sides  of  the  question 
in  every  case,  and  so  indisposed  to  pronounce  categoric- 
ally for  either  side,  that  dogmatic  men  might  even  be 
ready,  at  times,  to  call  him  timid.  His  colleagues,  Drs. 
Taylor  and  Goodrich,  though  in  the  highest  degree 
friendly  to  him,  were  never  quite  able  to  appreciate  his 
position — the  condition  of  mind  which  pertained  to  his 
very  nature,  and  was  established  in  strength  and  perma- 
nency by  his  studies.  They  felt,  by  reason  of  their 
mental  constitution  and  habits,  that  definite  conviction  in 
all  cases  of  questioning  was  to  be  reached,  or  nothing 
would  be  accomplished.  Indecision  was  a  state  of  which 
265 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

they  were  intolerant.  The  man  must  have  settled  opin- 
ions in  every  instance,  or  he  is  at  sea  drifting  any 
whither.  He  must  find  and  declare  that  upon  which  he 
can  rest  for  himself  and  take  his  firm  stand  against 
others.  Even-balancing  between  two  views  of  a  subject 
means  nothing,  has  no  results.  I  remember  hearing  Dr. 
Taylor  say,  on  one  occasion — half  jocosely,  of  course — 
"I  would  rather  have  ten  settled  opinions,  and  nine  of 
them  wrong,  than  to  be  like  my  brother  Gibbs  with  none 
of  the  ten  settled." 

The  fact  of  the  case  was — or  so,  at  least,  it  seems  to 
me — that  Professor  Gibbs  was  a  scholar  of  the  German 
order,  while  his  two  colleagues  were  not.  He  was,  as  it 
were,  a  German  scholar  who  had  landed  on  American 
soil  a  little  too  early  to  be  understood  by  more  dogmatic 
men,  such  as  they  were.  Possibly  he  was  rendered 
somewhat  less  bold  in  expression  than  he  might  other- 
wise have  been,  because  of  the  boldness  of  these  col- 
leagues. They  may  occasionally  by  their  attitude  have 
turned  his  courage  into  a  caution  which  seemed  to  them 
like  fear.  His  questionings  were  not  sceptical  in  their 
character,  and  his  hesitation  was  by  no  means  the  result 
of  apprehensions  or  unworthy  doubts.  He  was,  on  the 
contrary,  an  exegetical  scholar,  who  gave  the  work  of 
his  lifetime  to  studies  in  which  absolute  fairness,  as  well 
as  honesty,  is  the  governing  law,  and  within  the  sphere 
of  which  the  student  is  led  by  a  sense  of  duty,  if  he  is 
true  to  his  calling,  to  look  calmly  and  faithfully  at  all 
the  possibilities  of  interpretation.  That  he  carried  his 
evenness  of  balance  in  judgment  too  far  at  times  may, 
no  doubt,  have  been  the  fact.  But  his  example  had  much 
in  it  of  beneficial  and,  at  the  same  time,  restraining  in- 
fluence. It  impressed  upon  his  students  the  duty  of 
careful  investigation  before  firmly  establishing  their  con- 
victions, and  urged  upon  each  one  of  them,  with  a  living 
force,  the  exhortation,  "audi  alterant  partem" 


PROFESSOR   JOSIAH    W.    GIBBS 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

I  cannot  help  thinking,  however,  that  if  he  had  had 
greater  readiness  to  pronounce  decided  opinions  when 
he  held  them,  and  had  thus  taken  the  lead  for  his  pupils 
himself,  instead  of  referring  them  so  exclusively  to  the 
views  of  other,  and  perchance  discordant,  scholars  of 
eminence,  he  would  have  been  a  more  helpful  and  stimu- 
lating instructor.  The  majority  of  young  students,  if 
not  all,  need  a  leader  for  their  highest  success — a  leader 
who  is  fair-minded,  judicious,  ready  to  consider  all  rea- 
sonable views  indeed,  but  who  can  bring  them,  after  all 
the  course  of  inquiry,  to  definitely  pronounced  results — 
definitely  pronounced  by  himself.  But  the  presence  of 
such  a  scholar  as  Mr.  Gibbs  was,  in  such  a  company  of 
four  as  then  constituted  the  Theological  Faculty,  gave 
a  completeness  to  the  body  which  could  not  well  have 
been  spared. 

In  his  work  as  an  instructor,  Professor  Gibbs  was 
quiet  and  not  self-assertive,  yet  faithful  and  painstaking; 
accurate  in  communicating  knowledge,  as  he  had  been 
in  acquiring  it  for  himself;  patient  with  the  slow  progress 
of  some  of  his  pupils,  but  pleased  with  the  more  rapid 
movement  of  others;  fitted  rather  to  guide  earnest  work- 
ers in  his  spheres  of  study,  than  to  stimulate,  and  lead 
onward  in  spite  of  themselves,  those  who  were  listless  or 
careless.  He  was  a  man  of  comparatively  few  words, 
but  these  were  well  chosen  for  his  purpose.  So  few  were 
his  words,  indeed,  that  they  often  seemed  not  quite  suffi- 
cient for  the  needs  of  beginners  in  a  strange  and  difficult 
language,  and  in  a  professional  course  which  had  in 
itself  so  much  that  was  as  yet  unknown.  I  remember 
that  it  sometimes  appeared  to  me  that  he  had,  as  it  were, 
made  a  careful  selection  of  all  the  words  which  he  re- 
garded as,  in  any  way,  necessary  for  the  full  explanation 
of  every  point  in  the  lesson  assigned  for  the  day — that 
he  had  made  this  selection  in  his  own  room  before  the 
recitation  hour,  and  that,  when  the  hour  arrived,  he 
267 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

had  taken  these  words  with  him  in  his  mind,  even  as  he 
had  taken  the  books  which  he  needed  under  his  arm,  and 
had  carried  them  for  his  use  to  the  lecture  room.  These 
words  were,  indeed,  sufficient  for  all  ordinary  cases.  But 
occasionally  some  unexpected  question  would  arise,  or  a 
difficulty  would  be  presented  by  some  student,  which, 
perchance,  had  not  seemed  to  him  worthy  of  considera- 
tion by  any  one — and  the  word  supply  proved  to  be  ex- 
hausted. It  was  as  if  he  must,  in  order  to  meet  the 
emergency,  return  to  his  study  room  and  procure  what 
was  needed.  But  in  fact  he  could  not  do  this.  After 
this  manner,  as  I  have  said,  it  appeared  to  me. 

In  such  cases,  he  would  suddenly  raise  his  right  hand 
in  front  of  his  eyes — pause,  and  look  steadily  at  it — and 
then,  with  equal  suddenness  exclaim,  "Oh,  there  is  a 
difficulty!" — which  difficulty  would  be  sometimes  ex- 
plained by  him,  but  at  other  times  would  be  left  without 
further  notice,  or  would  be  turned  unexpectedly  into 
what  was  quite  different  from  itself.  He  was  not  pre- 
cisely absent-minded  on  such  occasions,  in  the  common 
sense  of  that  phrase,  but  there  was  apparently  a  singular 
mingling  of  what  was  far  removed  with  what  was 
present,  which  made  him  seem  apart  from  us  while  he 
was  indeed  with  us.  Such  little  idiosyncracies  awakened 
in  us  a  peculiar  interest,  and  we  had  the  kindliest  feeling 
toward  him  as  he  guided  us  on  our  path. 

Professor  Gibbs  was  one  of  the  class  of  scholars — not 
very  numerous,  but  in  their  own  way  very  interesting — 
for  whom  words  seem  to  have  the  same  sort  of  vitality 
and  independent  life  that  human  beings  have.  They 
dwell  among  words  after  the  manner  in  which  other  men 
live  in  relation  to  their  friends  and  associates.  They 
enjoy  in  the  same  way  the  study  of  their  peculiarities;  of 
the  uses  which  they  serve  or  may  serve;  of  their  origin 
and  individual  growth;  of  the  varied  possibilities  that 
are  within  them.  They  are  pleased  when  others  treat 
268 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

them  well  by  giving  them  the  exactness  of  their  appro- 
priate meaning  and  placing  them  in  their  most  fitting 
position.  They  have  a  kind  of  real  grief — like  that 
which  one  feels  if  a  friend  is  dealt  with  unfairly — when- 
ever they  are  misunderstood,  or  bereft  of  their  true  sig- 
nificance, or  made  to  render  a  service  which  should  not 
be  demanded  of  them,  or  brought  into  wrong  associa- 
tions. Such  scholars  are  philologues  in  the  most  precise 
meaning  of  the  term.  They  are,  in  reality,  lovers  of 
words,  as  the  artist  is  a  lover  of  nature,  or  the  philan- 
thropist is  a  lover  of  men.  They  form  a  separate  group 
— apart  by  themselves — in  the  company  of  students  of 
language,  and  even  of  those  who  are  exclusively  given  to 
the  science  of  philology.  All  such  students  have  a 
special  interest  in  words,  of  course,  and  a  love  of  and 
devotion  to  their  science.  But  these  men  are  the  inner 
circle  within  the  outer  one,  for  whom  the  external  world 
seems  to  withdraw  itself,  and  what  are  its  mere  signs  of 
thought,  or  means  of  expression,  assume  a  reality  like 
its  own. 

Among  the  scholars  more  nearly  contemporary  with 
myself  in  age,  the  late  Professor  Ezra  Abbot,  of  Har- 
vard University,  seemed  to  me  the  most  striking  example 
of  this  class  of  men.  He  was  perhaps  the  ablest  New 
Testament  scholar  of  his  generation  in  our  country,  and 
he  had  the  highest  esteem  of  all  his  fellow-workers  in 
that  field  of  study.  But  his  attainments  were  no  more 
remarkable,  to  my  thought,  and  the  honesty,  sincerity 
and  wonderful  ability  manifested  in  his  working  were 
no  more  interesting,  than  was  this  peculiar  characteristic 
to  which  I  refer.  I  well  remember — when  the  American 
Company  were  engaged,  between  1871  and  1881,  in  the 
work  preparatory  to  the  publication  of  the  Revised 
Version  of  the  New  Testament  in  1881 — how  sensitive 
he  was  with  reference  to  the  selection  of  words,  as  if  he 
269 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

were  judging  of  his  friends  or  choosing  them  for  him- 
self; how  pleased  he  was,  as  with  a  child's  innocent 
pleasure,  when  his  associates  seemed  to  appreciate  as 
fully  as  himself  the  word  which  he  suggested;  and  how 
a  child-like  impatience  took  possession  of  him  for  the 
moment,  if  any  one  gave  to  a  word  a  wider  or  narrower 
significance  than  that  which,  in  exactest  justice,  belonged 
to  it.  There  was  a  certain  charm  in  observing  him,  and 
in  thinking  how  he  had  peopled  for  himself  a  kind  of 
ideal  world,  in  which  he  dwelt  with  the  same  sense  of 
reality  which  the  men  about  him  saw  in  what  they  could 
touch  with  their  hands.  There  is  an  imaginative  element 
in  such  men.  They  are  not  mere  dry  linguistic  scholars, 
or  scholars  to  whom  words,  as  lifeless  things,  are  all- 
absorbing  for  thought  and  interest.  They  are  scholars 
who,  for  and  in  their  own  minds,  give  independent  life  to 
words,  and  love  them  as  men  love  living  things. 

As  in  the  case  of  all  such  men,  kindly  but  amusing 
stories  used  to  be  told  in  connection  with  Professor 
Gibbs,'  and  repeated  among  the  students  of  successive 
classes.  They  were  intended  to  be  illustrative  of  his 
minute  verbal  scholarship  and  his  absorbing  interest  in 
it;  but  they  were,  in  fact,  rather  illustrative  of  their 
authors'  own  want  of  appreciation  of  scholarship  of  that 
order.  One  of  them  has  survived  the  passing  of  the 
years,  and  is  occasionally  heard  in  these  later  days.  It 
tells  of  a  long-continued  controversy,  extending  over  a 
period  of  several  months,  between  Professor  Gibbs  and 
Professor  Stuart,  of  Andover,  concerning  a  vowel-point 
in  a  certain  Hebrew  word — a  controversy  which  grew 
even  more  animated  as  it  was  prolonged;  the  question 
in  dispute  being  whether  there  was  such  a  point  or  not. 
After  the  protracted  correspondence  had  become  weari- 
some, and  even  seemed  likely  to  result  in  no  definite 
decision,  one  of  the  two  professors,  on  a  certain  morning, 
by  chance  drew  his  handkerchief  across  the  page  of  his 
270 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Hebrew  Bible  where  the  word  occurred;  and  lo,  the 
point  disappeared.  It  was  a  fly-speck  on  the  paper. 

The  impossibility  of  the  truth  of  such  a  story  as  con- 
nected with  two  such  eminent  Hebrew  scholars  is  mani- 
fest, at  the  first  moment,  to  any  one  who  has  any  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Hebrew  language  and  the  matter  of 
vowel-points,  as  the  original  fabricator  of  the  story  may, 
very  possibly,  not  have  had.  But  it  served  its  purpose 
for  the  young  students,  to  whose  minds  vowel-points  and 
fly-specks  were  alike  suggestive  of  extreme  minuteness; 
and  so  they  heard  it  with  pleasure  from  their  predeces- 
sors, and  told  it  gladly,  in  their  turn,  to  those  who  suc- 
ceeded them. 

A  second  anecdote — no  doubt,  equally  without  foun- 
dation in  reality — is  one  which  has  always,  since  I  first 
heard  it,  been  quite  suggestive  to  my  own  mind.  It  was 
to  the  effect  that,  on  a  certain  day,  the  professor  was 
found  by  a  student,  who  called  upon  him  at  his  college 
room,  in  a  state  of  profound  and  serious  meditation, 
which  seemed  to  remove  him  far  from  the  common 
studies  and  thoughts  of  the  theological  sphere.  So 
marked  was  his  appearance,  and  so  evident  were  the  in- 
dications of  serious  thoughtfulness  and  anxious  doubt, 
that  the  student  was  moved  to  put  to  him  an  inquiry  as 
to  the  subject  which  occasioned  his  agitation  of  mind. 
The  Professor's  reply  was,  that  he  had  been  thinking  of 
the  strangeness  of  the  fact  that,  while  the  words  patri- 
mony and  matrimony  were  formed  in  the  same  way  from 
kindred  roots,  they  had  such  entirely  different  meanings. 

Time  certainly  works  wonderful  changes.  If  there 
had  been  any  truth  in  this  story — as,  of  course,  there 
was  not — we  of  to-day  might  well  say,  that  the  Professor 
found  his  question  insoluble,  only  because  he  entered 
upon  the  consideration  of  it  at  too  early  a  date.  Much 
of  the  wonder  of  the  problem  has  n'ow  ceased,  and  the 
kinship  of  the  two  words  shows  itself,  at  present,  even  to 
271 


MEMORIES    OF    YALE    LIFE    AND    MEN 

ordinary  thoughtful  minds,  to  be  almost  as  close  as  that 
of  the  two  from  which  they  are  derived.  The  relation 
of  patrimony  to  matrimony  is  now  well  understood,  and 
if  the  patrimony  comes  through  the  matrimony  there  is 
no  longer  any  difficulty  as  to  the  meaning  or  likeness  of 
the  words. 

But  is  there  not  a  charm  in  the  story,  after  all?  Does 
it  not  give  a  charming  picture  of  a  meditative  scholar, 
who  moved  among  words  as  if  they  had  life  and  breath, 
and  who  could  muse  and  ponder  upon  them  with  unceas- 
ing interest  in  the  retirement  of  his  University  home? 

In  his  external  personality,  Professor  Gibbs  was 
somewhat  unique,  and  for  this  reason,  he  attracted  the 
notice  even  of  strangers  who  chanced  to  meet  him.  An 
excellent  portrait  of  him,  painted  in  1856,  by  Carpenter, 
is  placed  in  the  Library  of  the  Divinity  School,  and  from 
it  one  may  gain  a  satisfactory  idea  of  his  face,  which 
was  intelligent,  thoughtful,  and  indicative  of  the  schol- 
arly mind  that  lay  behind  it.*  As  compared  with  the 
portraits  of  his  three  colleagues,  in  the  same  building,  it 
gives  the  beholder  the  impression  that  in  intellectual 
ability  he  was  their  equal,  though  his  special  gifts  and 
theirs  might  be,  as  in  reality  they  were,  of  different  kinds. 
He  was  not  what  would  be  called  a  tall  man,  but  was  of 
good  height,  and  as  his  figure  was  spare  and  thin,  he 
seemed  perhaps  somewhat  taller  than  he  was.  As  he 
walked  in  the  streets  he  inclined  his  head  forward,  and  a 
little  to  one  side, — the  sideways  inclination  extending 
through  his  body, — so  that  his  gait  was  in  some  degree 
peculiar,  and  he  sometimes  became  aware  of  the  ap- 
proach of  a  friend  who  was  walking  behind  him,  when 
he  would  not  have  seen  the  same  friend  in  case  he  had 
been  drawing  near  in  such  a  way  as  to  meet  him  face  to 
face.  His  whole  appearance  was  suggestive  of  a  quiet, 
thoughtful,  meditative  man  of  learning,  who  lived 

*  The  picture  in  this  volume  is  copied  from  this  portrait. 
272 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

among  books  in  larger  measure  than  among  men — whose 
thoughts  afforded  him  sufficient  companionship,  whether 
at  home  or  abroad. 

When  the  Theological  School  was  first  organized,  in 
1822,  the  College  Corporation  did  not  feel  able  to  ap- 
point a  Professor  of  Hebrew  and  New  Testament  Greek, 
on  account  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  funds  at  their  com- 
mand. During  the  two  years  immediately  following  that 
date,  Professor  Kingsley  of  the  Academical  Department 
had  charge  of  the  instruction  in  the  former  of  the  two 
studies,  and  Professor  Fitch  rendered  the  necessary  ser- 
vice in  the  latter.  This  provision  for  the  work,  it  was 
realized  from  the  outset,  was  quite  inadequate  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  school  and  could  in  its  nature  be  only  tem- 
porary. In  1824,  accordingly,  though  there  had  been 
but  a  comparatively  insignificant  increase  in  the  funds,  it 
was  deemed  advisable  to  employ  an  instructor  who 
should  give  himself  to  Biblical  teaching,  and  should,  if 
successful,  receive  a  permanent  appointment  to  a  profes- 
sorship as  soon  as  it  should  be  possible  to  secure  a 
foundation  for  it. 

Mr.  Gibbs  was,  at  that  time,  resident  at  Andover, 
Mass.,  where  he  had  for  a  considerable  period  been 
carrying  forward  valuable  work,  especially  in  the  line  of 
Hebrew  Grammar  and  Lexicography.  The  minds  of 
Drs.  Taylor,  Fitch  and  Goodrich  had,  from  the  begin- 
ning, turned  towards  him  as  the  scholar  best  fitted  for 
the  new  sphere  opening  at  Yale.  Not  improbably,  the 
Corporation  also  had  in  their  own  consideration  of  the 
matter,  as  well  as  under  the  influence  of  these  gentlemen, 
been  already  led  to  regard  him  with  favor.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  governing  body  held  in  September,  1824, 
the  subject  was  discussed  and  the  final  decision  was 
reached.  The  vote  which  was  passed  is  a  very  suggestive 
one,  when  considered  in  its  relation  to  the  limited  state 
of  the  financial  resources  of  the  College  in  those  early 
273 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

days,  and  also  in  connection  with  the  changes  which  time 
has  brought  in  the  life  of  Yale  and  of  the  country.  It 
was  voted  that  an  invitation  should  be  extended  to  Mr. 
Gibbs  to  take  the  office  of  Librarian  of  the  College,  and 
that,  in  connection  with  this  office,  permission  should  be 
given  him  to  instruct  graduates  and  theological  students 
in  Hebrew  and  Greek.  He  was  invited,  as  it  might 
seem  at  first  thought,  to  a  position  other  than  that  which 
he  was  really  desired  to  fill.  But  the  suggestion  of  the 
other  words  of  the  vote  explains  the  seeming  strange- 
ness. There  was  a  salary,  though  a  limited  one,  attached 
to  the  Librarian's  office,  but  there  was  none  attached  to 
the  "permission" — the  instruction  was  to  be  given  to 
such  graduates  and  theological  students  as  might  desire 
to  receive  it  at  their  own  expense,  or  on  the  foundation  of 
such  provision  as  might  be  made  for  it  through  a  further 
increase  of  the  funds. 

I  have  sometimes  tried  to  picture  to  myself  this  young 
scholar,  as  he  received  this  invitation  from  the  Yale 
authorities,  and  as  he  took  his  journey  from  Andover  to 
New  Haven  in  answer  to  the  summons.  What  must 
have  been  his  thoughts  as  to  the  probabilities  respecting 
an  addition  to  his  salary  by  reason  of  what  might  be  re- 
ceived from  students  who  should  show  themselves  eager 
for  the  study  of  Hebrew,  in  case  special  charges  for  in- 
struction were  to  be  made?  The  elder  President  Ed- 
wards says,  somewhere  in  his  letters  or  diary,  that  he 
made  a  journey  from  Northampton  to  Boston  on  horse- 
back in  which  he  spent  a  fortnight,  and  that  he  "enjoyed 
much  sweet  meditation  on  the  way."  The  young  scholar, 
it  would  seem  to  us  of  to-day,  may  have  had  opportunity 
for  considerable  meditation  as  he  made  his  way  slowly 
through  the  country;  but  its  sweetness,  however  much  of 
it  there  was,  must  have  been  connected  with  other  than 
financial  subjects.  Was  it  not,  indeed,  that  which  came 
easily  and  naturally  into  the  mind  of  one  who  looked 

274 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

forward  with  cheerful  hope  to  a  life  consecrated  to  learn- 
ing and  who  had  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  a  true  son  of 
Yale? 

In  September,  1826, — two  years  after  his  arrival  in 
New  Haven  at  his  entrance  upon  his  work  as  Librarian 
and  instructor — a  moderate  sum  was  secured  as  a  partial 
endowment  of  the  chair  of  Sacred  Literature,  and  Mr. 
Gibbs  was  asked  to  take  it.  He  became  thus  a  full  pro- 
fessor in  the  Theological  Department,  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  its  Faculty  from  that  time  until  his  death.  He 
continued,  however,  to  act  as  the  College  Librarian  until 
1843.  He  had  held  his  professorship  for  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century  when  I  met  him  as  an  instructor. 
My  acquaintance  with  him  in  this  relation  was  mainly  in 
connection  with  the  Hebrew  language,  since  his  New 
Testament  Greek  exercises — occurring,  as  they  did  at  the 
same  hours  with  college  recitations  which  my  tutorial 
office  obliged  me  to  attend — were  practically  closed  to 
me.  The  opportunity  for  enjoying  his  teaching  or  observ- 
ing his  methods  in  the  special  department  which  was 
afterwards  assigned  to  me  as  his  colleague  was,  accord- 
ingly, of  the  most  limited  character.  Of  course,  how- 
ever, I  could  gain  a  reasonably  satisfactory  impression  in 
both  regards  as  I  pursued  my  Hebrew  studies  with  him. 
This  impression  I  have  already,  in  some  measure,  given. 
At  the  time  when  I  was  in  the  membership  of  his 
classes,  he  was,  as  I  think,  somewhat  more  interested 
in  the  general  study  of  language,  than  in  the  particular 
languages  which  he  was  teaching.  He  was  a  philolo- 
gist by  nature — one  of  the  first  in  our  country  of  the 
more  modern  type.  He  had  been  awakened  to  great 
interest,  and  much  quiet  enthusiasm,  through  his  ac- 
quaintance with  the  work  of  German  scholars  of  the 
period  in  this  branch  of  linguistic  science,  and  had  begun, 
with  renewed  energy,  to  make  researches  and  investiga- 
tions for  himself.  He  was  thus,  perhaps  more  than  he 

275 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

had  been,  a  verbal  scholar.  Yet  he  must  always  have 
had  this  characteristic  in  large  measure.  As  an  exegete, 
we  who  were  then  his  pupils  felt  an  absolute  confidence  in 
his  honesty  and  sincerity,  and  also  in  his  clearness  of 
insight  and  understanding.  We  often  wished,  indeed, 
that  he  would  give  us  the  result  of  his  investigations  in  a 
pronounced  and  definite  judgment  of  his  own,  when  he 
failed  to  do  so.  But  we  were  assured  that  he  had  always, 
when  the  discussion  was  closed,  presented  the  strength 
of  the  argument  on  either  side,  and  had  submitted  the 
question  fairly  and  fully  for  our  own  most  enlightened 
decision.  In  this  respect,  the  influence  of  his  teaching  and 
method  was  to  make  us  patient,  thorough,  and  genuine 
scholars. 

In  reply  to  a  question  of  one  of  his  pupils,  who  was 
quite  within  the  circle  of  his  friendly  acquaintance  when 
I  was  a  student  under  his  instruction,  as  to  why  he  had 
dated  many  of  the  brief  articles  which  he  published  on 
philological  points,  he  said,  "Because  I  did  not  wish  to 
be  responsible  after  that  date  for  an  opinion  which  I 
might  see  just  reason  subsequently  to  change."  This 
was  but  an  expression  of  the  hesitancy  which  belonged 
to  the  even  balance  of  his  mind.  I  have  thought  many 
times,  as  I  have  moved  onward  in  life  since  those  days, 
that  it  would  be  well  if  considerable  numbers  of  other 
men,  who  do  not  seem  inclined  to  do  so,  would  follow  his 
example,  and  date  their  published  opinions.  Possibly  it 
would  also  be  well  if  bodies  of  men,  political  or  ecclesi- 
astical, or  even  medical,  were  more  frequently  disposed 
to  do  the  same  thing.  Dates  have  sometimes  a  soothing 
and  quieting  influence  both  for  the  individual  mind  and 
the  public  mind. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  record  on  these  pages 
my  grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  kindly  and  generous 
manner  in  which  Professor  Gibbs  received  me  as  his 
276 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

younger  colleague  and  gave  into  my  charge  the  portion 
of  the  work  pertaining  to  the  department  of  Sacred  Lit- 
erature which  had  been  assigned  to  me  by  the  Corpora- 
tion. The  peaceful  enjoyment  of  my  earliest  years  as  a 
teacher  in  the  Divinity  School  was  assured  by  reason  of 
his  friendly  attitude  towards  me.  My  remembrance  of 
him  will  always  be  closely  united  with  my  thought  of 
those  years,  as  it  will  be  also  with  the  recollections  of  my 
life  as  a  graduate  student. 


277 


XV 

The  Divinity  School — Its  Rebuilding  and  Its  Later 
Faculty 

IT  was  a  happy  fortune,  as  I  have  always  thought 
when  looking  backward  over  the  past,  that  I  was 
placed  for  a  season  in  association  with  the  col- 
leagues of  Dr.  Taylor  who  survived  him.    By  reason  of 
this  fact,  my  professorial  life  had,  at  its  beginning,  some 
small  share  in  the  earlier  history  of  the  Divinity  School, 
and  I   thus  became   the   connecting  link  between  the 
Faculty  of  the  old  era  and  that  of  the  new. 

The  final  closing  of  the  old  era  came  in  the  summer 
of  1 86 1.  At  that  time,  Drs.  Goodrich  and  Gibbs  had, 
both  of  them,  passed  away — the  death  of  the  former 
having  occurred  on  the  25th  of  February,  1 860,  and  that 
of  the  latter  on  the  25th  of  March,  1861.  The  two  im- 
portant professorships  which  they  had  held  were  thus 
made  vacant.  The  chair  of  Systematic  Theology  had 
not  as  yet  been  permanently  filled,  and  the  work  of  Dr. 
Fitch,  the  only  remaining  member  of  the  original 
Faculty,  was  limited  to  a  single  course  of  lectures  which 
extended  over  a  very  few  weeks  of  the  seminary  year. 
It  was  evident  that,  if  the  institution  was  to  have  a  con- 
tinuance of  life,  provision  must  be  made  at  once  for  its 
successful  entrance  upon  another  era  of  its  history.  A 
new  Faculty  must  be  created,  and  new  forces  must  be  set 
in  operation. 

During  the  year  following  the  death  of  Dr.  Goodrich, 

I  had  rendered  such  service  in  carrying  on  his  work,  in 

addition  to  that  pertaining  to  my  own  department,  as 

proved  to  be  practicable.     In  the  four  months  of  the 

278 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

academic  year  1 860-61  which  intervened  between  the 
death  of  Professor  Gibbs  and  the  annual  Commence- 
ment, the  whole  charge  of  the  school  was  in  the  hands  of 
Professor  Porter  and  myself.  The  thought  of  such  a 
condition  of  things  seems  strange  at  the  present  time,  but 
it  was  then  a  thought  of  very  serious  reality.  One  cannot 
be  surprised  to  learn  that  it  was  exceedingly  impressive  in 
its  suggestiveness  and  force  to  the  minds  of  those  within 
the  College  circle,  and  also  of  many  outside  of  that 
circle,  who  turned  towards  the  Divinity  School  with  an 
especially  friendly  interest.  As  for  myself,  I  felt  that 
the  critical  hour  of  the  institution  had  arrived — the  hour 
when  a  decision  with  reference  to  the  future  must  be 
made  by  the  central  authorities  of  the  College.  What- 
ever that  decision  might  be,  it  would  involve  conse- 
quences of  deepest  significance.  If  it  should  terminate 
the  existence  of  the  school,  a  department  of  the  institu- 
tion would  be  sacrificed  and  lost.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  should  be  for  the  continuance  and  upbuilding  of  what 
the  men  of  the  earlier  generation  had  founded  and 
labored  for,  there  would  be  an  imperative  demand  upon 
the  energies  and  courage  of  the  workers  of  the  new 
period,  which  could  not  cease  for  long  years  to  come. 
It  was  well,  I  believed,  that  the  hour  had  arrived.  I  was 
glad  that  the  decisive  step  must  now  be  taken.  I  could 
not  persuade  myself,  however,  that  the  Yale  Corporation 
would  do  anything  other  than  that  which  the  event 
proved  that  they  did.  They  were  Yale  men,  who  had  the 
spirit  of  the  institution  and  of  its  fathers. 

How  vividly  I  recall  the  meeting  at  the  house  of 
President  Woolsey,  when  two  or  three  of  the  younger 
men  of  the  College  conferred  with  him,  at  his  request, 
as  to  the  possible  arrangements  for  the  future.  A  plan 
had  just  been  proposed,  in  accordance  with  which  Pro- 
fessor Fisher,  who  for  the  seven  preceding  years  had 
279 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

filled  the  office  of  College  Preacher,  was  to  be  transferred 
from  the  Livingston  Professorship  in  the  Academical 
Department  to  the  chair  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the 
Divinity  School,  and  Professor  Hoppin  was  to  be  ap- 
pointed the  successor  of  Dr.  Goodrich  in  the  professor- 
ship of  the  Pastoral  Charge.  It  had  been  suggested, 
also,  that  Mr.  Henry  H.  Hadley,  then  an  instructor  in 
Hebrew  in  Union  Theological  Seminary,  in  New  York, 
should  be  invited  to  take  the  Hebrew  chair,  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  Dr.  Gibbs.  The  question  which  occupied,  and 
even  oppressed  the  minds  of  those  who  were  present  at 
the  meeting,  was  a  financial  one.  Was  the  school  in 
such  a  condition  as  to  justify  the  attempt  to  reorganize  it 
in  this  way?  Could  the  responsibility  for  such  an  outlay 
of  money  as  would  be  necessary  for  the  successful  carry- 
ing out  of  the  plan  be  properly  or  safely  assumed? 

The  question  was  a  grave  one,  indeed.  But  we  who 
were  in  conference  with  the  President  were  young  men, 
with  much  of  the  hope  and  energy  belonging  to  our  age. 
We  determined  to  make  the  venture — to  commit  our- 
selves to  what  seemed  to  be  essential  to  the  growth  of  the 
school  in  the  future  as  a  department  worthy  of  the 
University,  although,  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  the 
present,  it  could  scarcely  be  regarded  as  within  the  limits 
of  possibility.  We  put  in  exercise  the  faith  which  is — if 
I  may  use  the  Scriptural  words — the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for  and  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.  The 
friendly  President,  whatever  doubts  or  fears  may  have 
mingled  with  his  generous  feeling,  sustained  us  in  our 
resolution ;  and  with  all  boldness  we  presented,  through 
him,  to  the  Corporation  the  requests  which  our  plan  in- 
volved. These  requests  were  granted,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1 86 1  the  new  life  began. 

It  was,  indeed,  only  a  beginning.  The  number  of 
students  was  small.  The  single  building  which  belonged 


at 

3 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  the  school  was  wholly  inadequate  to  the  demands  that 
would  become  imperative  in  case  of  any  considerable  in- 
crease in  attendance.  There  was  no  lecture-room  for  the 
use  of  the  professors,  except  one  which  had  been  pro- 
vided by  a  slight  enlargement  of  one  of  the  ordinary 
study-rooms  designed  for  students.  There  was  no  apart- 
ment in  the  building  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  a  library; 
no  meeting-place  for  the  student  body;  and  nothing 
which  could,  in  any  measure,  give  a  home-like  character 
to  the  daily  life  of  the  young  men.  Moreover,  the  build- 
ing itself  was  not  a  permanent  possession  of  the  school. 
It  had  been  originally  erected,  in  1835-36,  and  allowed 
its  place  in  the  line  of  the  dormitories  on  the  College 
grounds,  under  the  condition  that,  in  case  the  growth  of 
the  Academical  Department  should  render  such  action 
necessary,  the  Corporation  might  purchase  it,  at  a  valua- 
tion to  be  determined  by  appraisal,  for  the  uses  of  that 
department.  The  time  was  now  drawing  near  when  the 
necessity  indicated  would  be  likely  to  make  itself  mani- 
fest, and  the  school  would  accordingly,  so  far  as  its  old 
abiding-place  was  concerned,  become  homeless — home- 
less, also,  with  quite  uncertain  prospects  for  the  future. 
The  appraised  value  of  the  building,  as  determined  after- 
wards, was  but  thirteen  thousand  dollars,  while  it  was 
certain  that  the  expense  connected  with  the  erection  of  a 
new  one  would  be  from  seven  to  ten  times  that  amount. 
The  sum  of  the  productive  funds  in  possession  of  the 
school — including  twenty  thousand  dollars  which  had 
recently  been  offered  for  the  more  full  endowment  of 
the  chair  of  Pastoral  Theology  and  was  received  a  short 
time  afterwards — was  only  about  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  There  were  no  scholarships,  or  endowments  of 
any  kind,  for  the  aid  of  students  whose  circumstances 
were  such  as  to  render  financial  assistance  necessary  to 
their  prosecution  of  their  work.  There  was,  also,  no 
281 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

provision  for  instruction  in  elocution  or  music — so  im- 
portant for  young  men  who  are  about  to  enter  the  min- 
istry; none  for  special  lectureships  on  the  subject  of  for- 
eign missions,  or  kindred  subjects  of  interest  that  are 
closely  related  to  theological  education,  though  not  im- 
mediately in  the  line  of  the  regular  course  of  study;  and 
none  for  the  other  matters  which  are  only  secondary  in 
their  value,  in  such  an  institution,  to  those  which  may  be 
called  primary  because  they  are  absolutely  essential  to  its 
life. 

It  was  certainly,  in  all  respects,  a  situation  which  de- 
manded the  hopefulness  and  courage  of  men  in  the 
earlier  years  of  their  vigorous  manhood — a  situation 
which  my  older  colleagues,  the  men  of  the  former  period 
who  had  just  passed  away,  could  not  in  their  later  days 
have  had  the  heart  to  meet  in  all  its  necessities  and  all  its 
responsibilities.  Everything  was  to  be  newly  created  and 
established — funds,  buildings,  the  vigorous  life  of  the 
student  community,  the  methods  and  courses  of  instruc- 
tion as  related  to  the  requirements  of  the  opening  era, 
the  reputation  of  the  school  as  a  seminary  of  learning, 
even  its  position  of  honor  in  equality  with  all  other  de- 
partments of  the  College.  The  work  of  long  years  was 
upon  us,  the  fullness  of  the  results  of  which  might  well 
seem  to  our  minds  to  be  in  the  far  distance,  or  perchance, 
at  times,  to  be  even  beyond  the  possibility  of  our  attain- 
ment. 

Moreover,  within  a  month  after  the  death  of  Pro- 
fessor Gibbs,  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  our  coun- 
try had  taken  place,  and  already,  before  the  opening  of 
our  new  Seminary  year  and  the  beginning  of  our  new 
arrangements  for  the  school,  it  was  becoming  evident 
that  the  avenues  for  the  ingathering  of  funds  were  rap- 
idly closing,  and  that  the  call  of  the  nation  to  educated 
young  men  was  summoning  them  away  from  professional 
studies  to  active  service  in  the  military  sphere.  As  the 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

war  prolonged  its  course  beyond  the  first  expectations 
respecting  it,  and  continued  into  the  next  following  years, 
the  difficulties  in  both  of  the  lines  mentioned  perpetuated 
themselves,  and  even  increased.  In  the  progress  of  those 
early  years  of  the  conflict,  the  minds  of  many  of  the 
friends  of  our  institution,  as  they  found  that  there  was 
only  a  small  growth  in  our  membership  and  but  little 
enlargement  of  our  financial  means,  became  discouraged. 
Some  of  them  began  to  doubt  the  possibility  of  our  suc- 
cess. Others  distinctly  prophesied  failure.  A  few  even 
openly  advised  that  the  school  should  make  no  further 
effort,  and  that  its  existence  as  a  Theological  Seminary 
should  be  terminated,  or,  at  least,  suspended  until  a  day 
of  better  fortunes  and  better  hopes. 

It  was  not  a  cheerful  outlook  for  us  who  had  under- 
taken the  work  of  renewal,  and  upon  whom  the  responsi- 
bility rested.  One  of  our  number,  Mr.  Hadley, — who 
had  joined  us  with  very  grave  doubts  as  to  the  success  of 
our  plans,  and  even  as  to  the  practicability  of  continuing 
a  theological  school  at  Yale,  in  such  near  proximity  to 
other  eminently  prosperous  schools, — became  rapidly 
more  disheartened,  and,  at  the  end  of  his  first  year  of 
service,  resigned  his  position  in  order  that  he  might 
accept  a  professorship  in  Union  Seminary  where,  as  al- 
ready stated,  he  had  been  an  instructor.  We  who  re- 
mained in  the  institution  could  not  blame  him  for  his 
questionings  and  disheartenment.  He  had  our  very  high 
esteem  for  his  scholarly  ability  and  acquirements  and 
our  friendly  regard  for  him  as  a  man,  which  continued 
unchanged  until  his  early  and  lamented  death.  But 
after  the  years  had  moved  on  and  the  work  was  accom- 
plished, we  were  happily  able  to  say  to  ourselves  that, 
like  many  others,  he  had  not  foreseen  the  future  which 
held,  though  we  then  knew  it  not,  a  bright  promise  in 
itself,  that  was  to  bring  in  due  time  a  very  rich  reward. 

Fortunately  we  who  remained  irf  the  school,  though 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

often  discouraged,  were  never  thoroughly  or  hopelessly 
disheartened.  We  pressed  onward,  and  waited  for  the 
coming  time.  As  for  myself — the  one  who  had,  as  it 
were,  come  out  from  the  old  Faculty  into  the  new — I 
never  allowed  myself,  for  a  moment,  to  think  of  aban- 
doning the  largest  and  widest  plan  which  had  been 
formed  for  the  new  era,  or  of  being  moved,  in  the  least, 
by  the  suggestions  of  friends  who,  as  onlookers,  were 
disturbed  by  doubts  or  advised  us  to  yield  to  adverse  fate. 

The  Faculty  of  the  Divinity  School,  in  September, 
1 86 1,  consisted  of  the  five  gentlemen  already  mentioned, 
Professors  Hoppin,  Fisher,  Henry  Hadley  and  myself, 
who  held  professorships  in  the  school  itself,  and  Pro- 
fessor Porter,  who  was  associated  with  us  in  the  work  of 
teaching  though  his  official  position  was  in  the  Academ- 
ical Department.  Some  important  changes  occurred 
between  this  date  and  the  opening  of  the  college  year  in 
September,  1866.  When  Professor  Hadley  offered  his 
resignation  after  his  service  of  a  single  year,  the  work 
which  had  been  placed  under  his  charge  was  given  to 
Mr.  Van  Name,  now  the  University  Librarian,  as  In- 
structor in  Hebrew.  Mr.  Van  Name  was  appointed  to 
his  office  in  the  library  in  1865,  but  he  kindly  continued 
his  teaching  in  the  school  until  the  close  of  the  following 
academic  year,  when  Professor  George  E.  Day,  then  of 
Lane  Theological  Seminary,  was  called  to  become  the 
Professor  of  the  Hebrew  Language  and  Literature.  At 
the  same  time  with  the  appointment  of  Professor  Day, 
Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  was  asked  to  take  upon  himself  the 
duties  connected  with  the  Department  of  Systematic 
Theology — Professor  Porter,  after  eight  years  of  valued 
service,  being  released  from  this  sphere  of  instruction. 
Dr.  Bacon  remained  a  member  of  the  Faculty  until  the 
end  of  his  life,  but  he  resigned  the  chair  of  Theology 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  Dr.  Samuel  Harris  when  the  latter  was  elected  to  the 
professorship,  in  1871. 

The  period  from  1866  to  1871  was  that  in  which  most 
of  the  efficient  work  was  done  for  the  establishment  of 
the  school  on  a  firm  foundation.  In  the  five  years  pre- 
ceding 1866,  because  of  the  continuance  of  the  war  and 
for  other  reasons,  comparatively  little  could  be  effected, 
either  in  the  matter  of  securing  funds  or  of  enlarging  the 
numbers  or  opportunities  of  the  institution.  Much  that 
was  of  a  preparatory  character,  however,  was  accom- 
plished. A  good  measure  also  of  new  impulse  was  given 
to  the  students  and  new  inspiration  imparted  to  the  life 
of  all.  A  not  inconsiderable  addition  to  the  funds  was 
likewise  secured.  But  after  the  year  1866 — the  war 
being  ended  and  prosperity  having  become  more  general 
throughout  the  country — the  work  was  undertaken  with 
new  energy  and  new  hope.  The  members  of  the  Faculty 
gave  their  best  efforts  to  the  instruction  and  help  of  the 
students — never  suspending  or  abandoning  their  exer- 
cises with  them — but,  in  addition  to  what  they  endeav- 
ored to  do  on  their  behalf,  they  took  upon  themselves  the 
burden  of  securing  the  funds  which  were  essential  to  the 
growth  of  the  school  and,  primarily,  the  amount  requisite 
for  the  new  building  which,  by  reason  of  the  removal  of 
the  old  Divinity  Hall,  was  becoming  a  matter  of  vital 
importance. 

In  view  of  all  the  circumstances  and  special  difficulties 
of  the  case,  the  accomplishment  of  the  work  connected 
with  this  building  has,  ever  since  that  time,  seemed  to  me 
a  greater  success  than  any  other  financial  undertaking  of 
the  kind  within  the  past  half-century  of  the  College  his- 
tory. But  the  accomplishment  was,  in  due  season,  real- 
ized; ancl  in  the  autumn  of  1870  we  found  ourselves  in  a 
position  which  enabled  us  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of  the 
building,  with  very  strong  confidence  that  it  could  be 
completed  and  the  expense  of  its  erection  could  be  met. 
285 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     M  E  N" 

The  detailed  story  of  the  Divinity  School,  in  these 
ten  years  to  which  I  have  referred,  is  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  my  inward  and  outward  personal  life,  and 
so  full  of  experiences  which  touch  the  soul's  deepest 
feeling,  that  I  cannot  record  it  on  these  pages.  It  will 
be  enough  to  say  that  the  seed-time  was  followed  by  the 
harvest.  The  period  of  preparation — a  preparation 
which  involved  in  itself  the  laying  of  foundations  anew, 
and  an  upbuilding  in  every  line — extended  over  all  these 
years.  But  in  what  seemed,  as  we  looked  back  upon  the 
work  afterwards,  a  wonderful  way,  all  the  preparatory 
things  were  completed,  as  it  were,  at  the  same  moment. 
The  result  was  accomplished,  to  the  surprise  of  all  who 
were  friendly  to  us  and  even  of  ourselves;  and  from  that 
moment  the  school  became  a  vigorous  institution,  having 
an  institutional  life,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  which 
was  independent  of  any  individual  teacher's  power  or 
reputation,  and  which  had  in  itself  the  promise  of  per- 
manence. It  was  stronger  in  this  regard  than  it  had 
ever  been  in  its  earlier  history.  Every  room  in  the  new 
building  then  just  completed,  with  a  single  exception,  was 
filled,  and  we  found  ourselves  at  once  forced  to  consider 
the  question  of  providing  additional  accommodations  for 
increasing  numbers.  The  student  body,  which  in  the 
old  days  had  been  mainly  limited  in  its  membership  to 
the  graduates  of  our  own  College,  began  now  to  gather 
into  itself  young  men  from  other  institutions  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  The  sphere  of  the  school's  influ- 
ence was  thus  widened  and  the  forces  for  its  life  and 
growth  were  strengthened.  Students  of  different  re- 
ligious denominations,  also,  were  soon  attracted  to  the 
school — a  fact  which  added  much  to  its  power  for  good, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  gave  occasion  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  happiest  and  truest  Christian  fellowship  and 
unity.  The  Faculty  had,  in  these  years,  received  impor- 
tant additions  to  its  circle.  It  was  now  complete  in  its 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

number,  every  chair  being  filled.  All  the  professors  were 
in  the  vigor  of  life.  They  were  enthusiastic  for  the  work 
of  their  own  departments  of  study.  They  were  as  har- 
monious in  sentiment  and  as  friendly  in  feeling  as  any 
body  of  men  could  be — each  having  a  generous  sympathy 
for  his  associates  in  their  individual  spheres  of  thought 
and  effort,  and  all  alike  being,  with  whole-souled  devo- 
tion, consecrated  to  the  common  interests  and  welfare. 
With  reference  to  myself  everything  was  changed  most 
satisfactorily.  In  contrast  to  my  position  in  1858  when 
I  was  a  beginner  in  my  work,  in  association  with  vener- 
able men  who  were  drawing  very  near  to  the  end  of 
their  career,  and  in  1861  when,  for  a  little  time,  I  was  the 
only  teacher  whose  home  was  in  the  school  and  whose 
life  was  committed  to  it,  I  found  myself,  in  1871,  with 
a  strong  and  earnest  company  of  students  ready  to  re- 
,  ceive  instruction,  and  in  union  with  a  Faculty  which  was 
equal  in  numbers  and  in  reputation  to  that  of  any  Theo- 
logical school  in  the  country.  The  days  of  uncertainty 
and  discouragement  had  indeed  passed  away,  and  the 
new  day  of  light  and  success  had  come. 

It  was,  in  fact,  a  day  of  light  and  success,  as  I  thought 
at  the  time  and  have  thought  ever  since, — a  day  of  great 
significance  and  promise, — for  the  entire  College  in  its 
growth  towards  the  University.  The  ordering  of  events 
was  such,  that  the  possibility  or  opportunity  of  renewing 
the  life  was  opened  for  the  Divinity  School  at  an  earlier 
date  than  it  was  in  the  case  of  the  Law  and  Medical  De- 
partments. For  this  reason  we  were  the  first  who  had  the 
privilege  of  undertaking  the  work  of  renewal,  and  of  ac- 
complishing the  result  which  was  of  such  vital  importance 
for  the  future.  Our  happy  fortune  in  those  years,  there- 
fore, carried  in  itself  hope  and  inspiration  for  the  other 
schools  when  their  time  should  come.  Even  more  than 
this,  it  carried  in  itself  for  the  workers  who  had  faith, 
287 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

and  the  energy  which  faith  gives,  the  assurance  that  they 
also  would  reach  the  end  to  which  they  should  direct 
their  efforts.  We  rejoiced,  accordingly,  as  the  blessing 
came  to  us,  not  alone  because  of  what  it  was  to  our- 
selves, but  for  what  it  would  prove  to  be,  through  the 
influences  connected  with  it,  for  the  greater  and  more 
perfect  institution  of  which  we  had  a  happy  vision. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  in  connection  with  the  renewed 
life  and  development  of  the  Law  and  Medical  Schools, 
and  the  successful  growth  of  the  Scientific  School  and  the 
School  of  the  Fine  Arts — a  fact  having  in  itself,  as  I 
think,  much  suggestiveness  and  inspiration  for  the  future 
— that  in  the  case  of  some  of  them  a  very  large  share, 
and  of  others  almost,  if  not  quite,  the  whole  of  the 
needed  work  was  accomplished  by  the  young  men  who 
were  called  into  the  service  of  the  institution  at  the  criti- 
cal period  of  the  history.  Their  presence  and  their 
faithfulness  united  with  efficiency  constituted  a  most 
important  and  even  essential  factor  in  the  realization  of 
the  desired  end. 

As  I  recall  the  earlier  days,  I  count  it  among  the  spe- 
cial privileges  of  my  career  that  I  was  brought  into  asso- 
ciation with  some  of  these  young  men  who  were  my  con- 
temporaries in  age  or  a  few  years  younger  than  myself 
and  who  were,  in  their  separate  spheres,  endeavoring  to 
advance  the  life  of  the  University  towards  the  ideal 
which  they  had  in  mind.  By  reason  of  our  union  in  the 
common  cause  I  was  enabled  to  gain  for  myself  the  help- 
ful influence  of  their  energy  and  wisdom,  as  well  as  their 
whole-souled  devotion,  and  also  somewhat,  as  I  trust,  of 
the  generosity  of  sentiment  which  was  naturally  awak- 
ened by  the  fact  that  our  working  was  in  different  depart- 
ments of  the  institution.  Especially  was  this  true,  even 
from  the  outset,  in  my  relations  to  Professor  Brush, 
whose  long-continued  service  to  the  School  of  Science  has 
always  been  so  conspicuous  and  is  now  so  universally  and 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

gratefully  acknowledged  by  its  graduates  everywhere. 
The  kindness  of  fortune  brought  us  together  when  our 
work  was  just  opening.  The  movement  of  the  years  led 
us  both  to  lay  it  aside,  almost  at  the  same  moment,  as  the 
half-century  was  drawing  to  its  close.  We  were  thus 
united  in  our  purpose  and  our  hopes  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end. 

Our  University  has  also  been  peculiarly  happy  in  its 
history,  in  the  fact  of  the  harmonious  working  of  its 
older  and  younger  officers,  who  have  ever  trusted  each 
other,  and  have  alike  been  ready  for  the  discharge  of  all 
duties  to  which  they  were  summoned  in  furtherance  of 
the  common  cause.  Such  sympathy  and  co-operation  as 
.we  have  witnessed  here  at  Yale  may  fitly  strengthen  our 
faith  as  we  look  forward  to  the  development  of  the 
University  life  in  the  coming  time.  They  give  encour- 
agement that  the  progress  of  the  years  may  be  marked 
hereafter,  as  it  has  been  in  the  past,  by  a  large-minded 
conservatism  accompanied  by  a  generous  hopefulness — 
by  the  wisdom  of  age  and  that  of  youth  in  their  union 
with  each  other. 

The  funds  required  for  the  other  three  buildings  now 
belonging  to  the  Divinity  School — the  Marquand 
Chapel  erected  in  1871;  West  Divinity  Hall  in  1874; 
and  the  Bacon  Memorial  Library  in  1881 — were  se- 
cured under  more  favorable  circumstances.  The  school 
had  now  proved  itself  to  have  a  new  and  vigorous  life, 
which  gave  promise  of  continuance.  Its  appeal  to  its 
friends,  accordingly,  had  a  more  manifest  foundation 
than  it  had  had  in  the  preceding  years.  There  was  a 
greater  measure  of  hope,  both  for  those  who  asked  for 
gifts  and  for  those  who  made  them.  An  imperative  de- 
mand for  enlargement  in  the  home  of  the  institution  be- 
came so  evident,  as  the  numbers  "of  students  greatly 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

increased  beyond  its  present  possibilities  of  accommoda- 
tion, that  the  necessity  of  the  case  was  apparent  to  all. 
We  had  reached  the  time  when  we  had  the  inspiration 
which  comes  from  actual  and  assured  growth.  More- 
over— and  this  was  an  all-important  element  in  the  case 
— we  had  the  good  fortune,  at  this  time,  to  awaken  the 
interest  in  our  cause  of  a  great  benefactor,  whose  gener- 
ous and  munificent  gifts  contributed,  in  the  highest  de- 
gree, to  our  success.  In  our  first  building  enterprise,  we 
had  found  no  such  helper.  The  individual  subscriptions 
for  that  enterprise  were,  for  the  most  part,  compara- 
tively small  in  amount.  No  one  of  them  was  larger  than 
ten  thousand  dollars.  In  1871,  however,  Mr.  Frederick 
Marquand,  of  Southport,  Conn.,  became  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  school,  and,  after  learning  of  its  needs,  he 
generously  offered  to  bear  the  expense  of  erecting  a 
chapel  for  its  uses.  Subsequently,  when  the  necessity  of  a 
new  dormitory  building  became  so  pressing  as  to  call  for 
immediate  action,  he  promised  to  give  one-half  of  the 
sum  that  should  be  required.  His  gift  for  this  purpose 
amounted  to  eighty  thousand  dollars,  and  to  it  we  owed 
our  success  in  securing  the  building.  A  few  years  later, 
with  the  same  generous  spirit,  he  took  upon  himself  the 
expense  of  the  building  which  was  desired  for  the  Li- 
brary of  the  school — a  library  the  fund  for  which  had 
been  previously  given  by  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Trow- 
bridge,  of  New  Haven,  as  a  memorial  of  two  of  his 
children  who  had  died  in  their  early  childhood.  The  Li- 
brary building  was  named,  at  Mr.  Marquand's  request, 
in  honor  of  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  whose  death  occurred  at 
the  close  of  the  year  in  which  it  was  completed.  The 
Chapel,  built  ten  years  earlier,  had  already  at  the  date  of 
its  erection  received,  by  vote  of  the  Corporation,  the 
name  Marquand.  It  was  erected  in  memory  of  Mr. 
Marquand's  wife,  Mrs.  Hetty  Perry  Marquand,  who 
died  in  1859. 

290 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

An  interesting  fact  connected  with  Mr.  Marquand's 
gifts,  and  one  of  much  significance  as  related  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  Divinity  School,  may  fitly  be  mentioned  as  I 
close  this  brief  account  of  what  he  did  in  its  behalf.  In 
a  conversation  with  one  of  the  members  of  our  Faculty, 
two  or  three  years  after  the  date  of  his  first  benefaction, 
he  said,  that  his  mind  was  led  to  think  favorably  of 
giving  to  the  school,  when  the  subject  was  presented  for 
his  consideration,  by  his  remembrance  of  the  first  Presi- 
dent Dwight  and  the  reverent  esteem  in  which  he  had 
always  held  him.  The  influence  of  that  eminent  man 
had  survived  the  half-century  which  had  passed  since  his 
death,  and  had  wrought  results  of  blessing  for  those 
who  followed  him  in  the  later  generation.  It  is  well 
known  that  Dr.  Dwight  was  deeply  interested  in  the  idea 
of  establishing  a  Theological  School  as  an  essential  part 
of  his  plan  of  developing  the  College  into  a  University. 
It  was  not  possible  to  realize  this  idea  within  his  life- 
time. He,  however,  suggested  to  his  eldest  son  that 
he  should,  when  he  found  himself  able  to  do  so,  make 
a  gift  for  the  foundation  of  the  school.  The  son's 
gift  was  offered  in  1822.  Though  a  small  one  as  meas- 
ured by  the  standard  of  to-day,  it  was  the  largest  that 
was  received  at  the  time,  and  the  one  which  assured  the 
success  of  the  undertaking.  The  two  gifts  were  sep- 
arated by  fifty  years,  but  the  same  influence  was  the 
moving  force  which  prompted  both  of  the  givers.  How 
true  it  is  of  large-minded  and  generous-hearted  men,  con- 
secrated to  noble  ends,  that — as  in  the  words  of  the 
•Book  of  Revelation — "their  works  do  follow  them." 

The  name  of  Frederick  Marquand  will  surely  be  al- 
ways held  in  highest  honor  in  the  Divinity  School  of 
Yale  University,  and  with  it  will  be  joined  the  names  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Elbert  B.  Monroe,  who  were  heirs  to  a 
large  part  of  his  estate  and  who  continued  his  benefac- 
tions for  years  after  his  death.  We  who  began  our  work 

291 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  the  school  in  the  days  of  its  temporary  but  serious  de- 
cline, had  the  deepest  gratitude  to  these  and  the  other 
generous  friends  who  aided  us  in  the  great  undertaking. 
Prominent  among  these  friends  was  the  late  William  E. 
Dodge,  whose  gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  offered  at 
the  beginning  of  our  first  building  enterprise,  gave  us 
the  courage  and  inspiration  to  go  forward  with  our  effort 
for  the  securing  of  the  necessary  fund.  Of  equal  prom- 
inence, and  as  great  usefulness  to  the  school,  by  reason 
of  their  benefactions,  were  Mr.  Augustus  R.  Street  who 
by  his  will  provided  an  endowment  of  nearly  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  chair  of  Church  History,  and  the 
late  Governor  William  A.  Buckingham,  a  timely  gift 
from  whom,  amounting  to  twenty-five  thousand  dollars, 
did  much  to  assure  success  in  our  entire  plan  and  under- 
taking. The  late  Daniel  Hand  also,  whose  bequests  to 
the  American  Missionary  Association  have  proved  of 
so  great  service  in  our  Southern  States,  was  a  most  help- 
ful contributor  to  our  work  on  two  different  occasions — 
his  gifts  being  offered  at  an  hour  when  they  had  the 
greatest  influence  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  end 
which  we  had  in  view.  Mr.  Henry  W.  Sage  generously 
founded  the  Lyman  Beecher  Lectureship  on  Preaching, 
and  thus  rendered  us  a  great  and  lasting  service.  The 
late  Aaron  Benedict,  of  Waterbury,  Conn.,  and  his 
son,  Mr.  Charles  Benedict,  came  to  our  assistance  at  a 
critical  moment  in  the  history  of  our  first  building,  and 
the  late  Samuel  Holmes,  for  many  years  an  honored  resi- 
dent of  the  same  city,  was  from  the  beginning  of  our 
work  even  to  the  close  of  his  life  a  liberal  and  magnani- 
mous friend,  on  whose  sympathy  we  were  able  ever  to 
rely.  I  wish  I  could  name  them  all  on  these  pages,  with 
a  fitting  word  of  praise  and  gratitude  for  each  and  every 
one.  But  this  would  be  impossible,  because  of  their 
numbers.  They  were  a  noble  body  of  men,  among  the 
best  of  our  state  and  country — a  company  of  benefactors 
292 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

whose  very  presence  with  us  seemed  to  be  a  manifestation 
of  the  Divine  favor  as  resting  upon  our  cause.  We  were 
glad  to  feel  that  they  and  ourselves  were  co-laborers  in 
the  sphere  of  the  highest  Christian  education.  The 
teachers  in  a  University  are  not  alone  its  makers  and 
builders.  Its  benefactors,  who  strengthen  it  in  its  life 
and  enlarge  its  power  for  good  and  its  opportunities  for 
usefulness,  are  a  true  part  of  itself,  ever  working  within 
it  and  upon  it  through  that  which,  out  of  their  wealth 
or  perchance  of  their  poverty,  they  have  placed  in  its 
possession. 

The  aim  and  the  hope  of  all  workers  in  an  institution 
of  learning  must  naturally  and  always  be  directed  to- 
wards the  time  when  its  resources  shall  be  equal,  or 
more  than  equal,  to  all  the  demands  which  come  upon  it. 
But,  notwithstanding  the  trials  and  limitations  attendant 
upon  the  weakness  of  the  earlier  stages  in  the  develop- 
ment, there  is  a  satisfaction,  which  every  large-minded 
and  large-hearted  man  can  appreciate,  in  the  efforts  and 
labors  that  are  nearer  to  the  beginning  and  that  lead  in 
their  results  to  the  final  realization.  This  satisfaction  my 
colleagues  and  myself  had  in  relation  to  our  work  for  the 
Divinity  School  in  the  years  from  1861  to  1875;  and  it 
remains  with  us  who  survive,  I  am  sure,  as  a  happy 
memory  of  the  past.  By  the  Divine  favor,  we  had  also, 
during  the  subsequent  years,  the  satisfaction  in  some 
measure  which  comes  with  the  accomplishment  of  the  re- 
sults and  the  attainment  of  the  desired  end.  The  fullness 
of  the  attainment  yet  waits  to  be  realized  in  the  future, 
when  new  benefactors,  having  the  same  large-minded 
generosity  which  characterized  their  predecessors,  shall 
have  co-operated  with  teachers  who  follow  us  in  placing 
the  school  on  financial  foundations,  which  are  strong 
enough  to  remove  all  anxieties  or  fears. 


2Q? 


XVI. 

Dr.  Samuel  Harris,  and  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon. 

OF  the  members  of  the  Faculty  of  the  Divinity 
School  which  was  made  complete  in  1871 — 
the  Faculty  of  the  new  era — only  two  have 
died,  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  and  Dr.  Samuel  Harris.  With 
reference  to  those  who  survive  it  is  not  fitting  that  I 
should  write  at  length,  pleasant  as  the  work  would  be 
and  full  of  happy  recollections  gathering  about  the  by- 
gone years.  But  of  these  two  who  have  passed  on  into 
the  other  life  I  will  endeavor  to  give  a  few  descriptive 
words,  which  may  serve,  in  some  measure  at  least,  to 
picture  them  to  others  as  they  presented  themselves  to 
my  thought  and  vision.  The  full,  large  manhood  of  a 
man  of  greatness  and  goodness  is,  probably,  never  seen 
by  any  single  one  of  the  circle  of  his  friends.  The  sum 
of  the  revelations  which  he  makes  of  himself  to  the 
whole  company  is  needed,  in  order  that  he  may  be 
known  as  he  truly  is.  But  the  thought  of  each  one  con- 
cerning him  has  its  value,  and  may  be  helpful  in  its  own 
way  and  measure. 

When  Professor  Harris  came  to  us,  he  was  fifty-seven 
years  of  age.  He  was  a  native  of  the  state  of  Maine, 
and  was  a  graduate  of  Bowdoin  College.  His  pastoral 
life,  from  1841  to  1855,  was  spent  in  Massachusetts, 
but  for  sixteen  years  previous  to  1871  he  had  been,  at 
first  a  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Divinity  School  at 
Bangor,  Maine,  and  subsequently  the  President  of  the 
college  which  had  given  him  his  early  education.  He 
was,  as  a  consequence,  comparatively  a  stranger  to  us 
294 


r 


PROFESSOR    SAMUEL    HARRIS 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

when  we  presented  to  him  our  invitation  to  the  Dwight 
Professorship  and,  greatly  to  our  satisfaction,  received 
his  acceptance  of  our  offer.  We  knew  him,  however,  by 
reputation,  and  through  acquaintance  with  his  writings 
and  his  work  as  a  theologian.  Some  of  us  had  enjoyed 
opportunities  of  meeting  him  occasionally,  while  all  of 
our  number  were  persuaded  of  the  general,  as  well  as 
thorough  harmony  of  his  views  with  our  own.  His 
entrance  upon  his  duties  was  coincident  in  time  with  the 
completion  and  the  opening  of  the  first  of  our  new 
buildings,  and  with  the  beginning  of  the  marked  increase 
in  the  number  of  our  students.  At  the  very  outset,  he 
commanded  the  respect  and  excited  the  interest  of  the 
young  men  in  his  classes.  His  lectures  were  highly  ap- 
preciated. They  were  full  of  thought  coming  from  his 
own  mind,  and  were  stimulative  to  thought  in  other 
minds.  His  style  was  admirably  adapted  to  the  wants 
and  desires  of  his  hearers.  It  was,  in  a  remarkable  de- 
gree, perspicuous,  while  at  the  same  time  it  was  literary 
and  had  also  an  imaginative  element.  His  power  of 
helpful  and  lucid  illustration  surpassed  that  of  most 
of  the  lecturers  and  public  speakers  to  whom  it  has  been 
my  fortune  to  listen.  In  a  word,  his  ability  to  present 
truth  to  others  fully  equalled  his  clearness  of  insight 
respecting  it.  We  were  at  once  convinced  that  we  had 
acted  wisely  in  calling  him  to  official  service  in  the 
school,  and  this  conviction  remained  ever  afterwards. 

As  our  preparatory  work — preparatory  to  the  com- 
plete reorganization  of  the  school — had  already  been 
accomplished  before  his  coming  to  New  Haven,  Dr. 
Harris  was  happily  freed  from  some  of  the  heavier 
burdens  which  had  rested  upon  his  colleagues.  He  felt 
himself  also,  at  that  time,  to  be  a  stranger  to  the  region, 
as  indeed  he  was,  while  he  recognized  the  fact  that  all 
the  rest  of  the  professors  had  been  long-continued  resi- 
dents of  the  city  and  the  state,  or  were,  at  least,  familiar 

295 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

with  the  life  and  history  of  the  institution.  For  these 
reasons,  he  did  not  find  it  practicable  to  do  as  much  of 
certain  kinds  of  work — particulaly,  in  the  line  of  effort 
for  the  increase  of  endowments — as  some  of  his  asso- 
ciates were  called  to  do.  For  these  reasons  likewise — as 
I  have  been  always  disposed  to  believe — he  never  as- 
sumed for  himself  the  prominent  position  with  reference 
to  public  affairs  in  Connecticut,  which  he  had  easily  taken 
in  Maine.  He  lived  a  more  retired  life  during  his  years 
at  Yale — a  life  more  characteristic  of  a  scholarly  theolo- 
gian and  a  writer  of  books,  than  of  one  who  was  a 
leader  in  the  discussions  and  contentions  pertaining  to 
the  commonwealth.  The  period  of  his  residence  in 
Maine  included  the  era  of  the  Civil  War.  At  that 
critical  time,  he  was  one  of  the  most  active  and  influ- 
ential citizens  in  his  devotion  to  the  national  interests. 
He  was  incessant  and  urgent  in  his  efforts  and  appeals. 
He  was  a  speaker — even  a  political  orator — of  very 
unusual,  and  very  universally  acknowledged,  force  and 
eminence.  Many  seriously  thought  of  him  as  a  candi- 
date for  membership  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  he 
might  not  improbably,  had  he  been  willing  to  accept  it, 
have  received  the  office. 

All  this  was  changed  in  the  subsequent  years  and 
in  his  new  abode.  He  was  an  able  preacher,  but  rarely  if 
ever  an  impassioned  one.  He  had  an  ability  in  extempo- 
raneous preaching  which  was  of  a  very  high  order,  and 
which  in  its  peculiar  character  I  have  never  seen  sur- 
passed, if  indeed  equalled,  in  any  other  man.  But  he 
did  not  exhibit  the  eloquence  of  the  political  orator,  nor 
indeed  that  eloquence  which  arouses  to  excited  feeling, 
and  sways  with  emotion  large  audiences.  He  was  every- 
where, in  the  street,  in  his  lecture-room,  in  the  pulpit,  in 
his  friendly  associations,  the  calm,  thoughtful,  medita- 
tive man  of  intellect  and  learning;  able  to  set  forth 
296 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  truth  with  distinctness  and  emphasis — with  imagina- 
tive force  also,  and  rich  abundance  of  illustration — to 
intelligent  hearers,  but  not  after  the  manner  of  the 
orators  of  the  anti-slavery  conflict  and  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  South  and  the  North. 

Dr.  Harris  was  a  highly  valuable  officer  of  the 
Divinity  School — one  whose  contributions  of  service  in 
its  cause  his  associates  appreciated  most  fully.  He  held 
himself  ready  for  any  effort  which  he  could  wisely 
undertake,  and  was  heartily  willing  to  co-operate,  both 
in  the  way  of  sympathy  and  of  action,  with  each  and  all 
of  the  company.  Even  in  the  matter  of  the  financial 
interests  of  the  school,  he  was,  in  special  instances,  in- 
strumental in  securing  important  gifts.  As  a  colleague 
he  had  the  kindliest  sentiment,  the  most  liberal-minded 
charity,  the  largeness  of  heart  which  cherishes  no  sus- 
picion and  opens  itself  only  to  confidence  and  to  the 
purest  and  noblest  feeling.  He  seemed  to  dwell,  with 
great  pleasure  and  satisfaction,  in  the  sphere  of  his  own 
thoughts.  His  mind,  however,  was  open  everywhere  to 
nature  and  the  natural  world.  He  was  a  lover  of  trees 
and  flowers,  and  had  much  knowledge  of  them.  It  was 
a  delight  to  him  to  take  long  solitary  walks  in  the  coun- 
try— to  commune  with  nature  and  his  own  mind,  and 
bring  the  two  together  lovingly.  From  those  happy 
walks,  he  brought  with  him  many  pictures  illustrative  of 
truth  and  of  his  meditations,  which  he  placed  in  most 
fitting  language  before  his  hearers  in  his  public  dis- 
courses. In  conversation  with  others,  he  was  disposed 
to  reticence.  He  waited  for  his  friends  to  offer  sugges- 
tions or  to  lead  the  way,  seeming  thus  to  hesitate  in  the 
forthputting  of  himself.  And  yet,  at  times,  when  roused 
by  some  special  exciting  cause,  he  would  express  himself 
with  greater  freedom,  and  as  if  under  the  impulse  of 
strong  emotion.  The  fire  of  the  orator  within  him  was 
297 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

perchance,  at  such  moments,  manifesting  itself  with  a 
measure  of  its  old  ardor. 

As  a  theologian,  Professor  Harris  was  thoroughly 
Christian;  holding  fast  to  the  fundamental  truths,  and 
looking  for  ever-increasing  light.  Having  a  belief  in 
the  future  as  resting  upon  and  growing  out  of  the  past, 
he  had  many  hopes  and  no  fears,  and  thus  was  always 
calm  as  a  philosopher  should  be.  His  theological  system 
had  been  carefully  thought  out  by  himself.  He  was  an 
independent  thinker; — not  independent  in  that  he 
counted  the  thoughts  of  others  who  had  gone  before  him 
as  of  no  account,  but  in  that  he  subjected  every  question 
to  his  own  personal  consideration,  and  so  determined  it 
for  himself,  with  the  use  of  all  possible  light  at  his 
command,  yet  at  the  same  time  with  a  full  recognition  of 
his  responsibility  to  the  truth  and  to  God.  He  had  no 
inclination  or  desire  to  be  a  leader  in  theological  contro- 
versy, and  perhaps  did  not  possess  the  special  gifts  which 
qualify  a  man  to  become  one.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
was  fitted  both  in  mind  and  soul  to  render  service  as  a 
guide  to  thoughtful  and  earnest  students  in  their  search 
for  the  highest  truth.  As  such  a  guide  he  gave  his  pupils 
the  results  of  his  studies  and  his  thinking — of  the  latter 
as  taking  up  into  itself,  and  making  its  own  by  its  inde- 
pendent work,  all  that  the  former  could  give.  By  this 
means  he  led  them  to  a  true  and  genuine  Christian  free- 
dom. 

No  theologian  of  the  last  forty  years,  whether  in  New 
England  or  in  any  other  part  of  the  country,  has  sur- 
passed him  in  ability.  None  has  rendered  a  greater 
service  in  furtherance  of  his  science,  than  he  did.  His 
published  works  have  had  a  wide  circulation,  especially 
his  "Philosophical  Basis  of  Theism,"  which  contains  the 
substance  of  his  lectures  to  the  successive  Junior  classes 
in  the  Divinity  School.  This  book  was  everyhere  re- 
ceive/;) by  scholars  in  our  own  country  and  in  England 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

with  marked  favor.  It  was  also  translated  into  the 
Japanese  language  and  published  in  Japan.  A  portion 
only  of  his  Doctrinal  System — two  volumes  entitled, 
"God  the  Father  and  Lord  of  All" — was  given  to  the 
press  during  the  closing  years  of  his  life.  He  was  busily 
engaged,  almost  to  the  very  end,  in  the  preparation  and 
revision  of  later  volumes,  which,  if  they  could  have  been 
published  by  him  before  his  death,  would  have  been  re- 
ceived with  gratitude  by  his  pupils  and  by  theological 
scholars  of  a  wider  circle. 

Dr.  Harris  continued  in  his  professorship  during  a 
period  of  twenty-four  years,  from  1871  to  1895.  In 
the  latter  year,  he  offered  his  resignation  and  received  the 
title  of  Professor  Emeritus.  At  the  request  of  his  suc- 
cessor, Professor  George  B.  Stevens,  and  of  the  other 
members  of  the  Faculty,  he  gave,  for  one  or  two  years 
afterwards,  a  single  course  of  lectures,  but  then,  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  own  desire,  he  withdrew  entirely  from 
active  service  in  the  school.  On  the  25th  of  June,  1899, 
after  a  brief  illness,  he  died  at  his  summer  residence  in 
Litchfield,  Conn.  He  had  just  passed  his  eighty-fifth 
birthday.  His  career  as  a  preacher,  a  theological  teacher 
and  a  college  president  extended  over  more  than  half  a 
century,  his  first  settlement  in  the  pastorate  of  a  church 
having  taken  place  in  the  year  1841.  His  service  as 
President  of  Bowdoin  College  was  given  at  a  critical 
time  in  the  history  of  the  institution,  and  was  most 
valuable  in  accomplishing  the  results  which  were  spe- 
cially desired  by  its  wisest  friends.  His  tastes  and  pref- 
erences, however,  it  is  believed,  turned  toward  the  pro- 
fessorial, rather  than  the  presidential  duties.  It  was 
partly  for  this  reason,  no  doubt,  that  he  found  himself 
disposed  to  accept  the  position  that  was  offered  him  at 
Yale.  I  cannot  question — knowing  him,  as  I  did,  in  the 
last  twenty-eight  years  of  his  career- — that  his  life  was 
299 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

happier  because  of  the  decision  that  he  made.  He  would 
have  been  an  able  president,  if  he  had  continued  in  that 
position.  But  it  seemed  to  me  that  much  of  the  work 
necessarily  connected  with  the  presidential  office  in  al- 
most all  our  colleges  would  have  become  more  and  more 
burdensome  to  him  with  the  progress  of  time.  He  was, 
by  his  very  nature,  a  thinker  and  teacher.  His  sphere 
was  his  study  and  his  lecture-room — at  least,  it  was  so  in 
case  he  turned,  as  he  did,  to  university  life  rather  than 
the  public  life  of  the  state — and  he  found,  I  am  sure, 
the  largest  happiness  when  he  came  to  our  institution, 
even  as  he  gave  great  happiness  to  us  who  were  co-labor- 
ers with  him. 

Dr.  Bacon,  though  he  was  born  in  Detroit,  Mich., 
where  his  father  was  then  in  missionary  service,  was  of 
Connecticut  parentage.  He  graduated  at  Yale  College 
in  the  Class  of  1820.  Five  years  later,  in  1825,  he  re- 
ceived ordination  as  pastor  of  the  First  Church  in  New 
Haven.  When  he  began  his  work  in  the  Theological 
School  he  had  held  this  position  continuously  for  forty- 
one  years.  He  had  long  been  a  conspicuous  figure,  also, 
in  the  life  of  the  city.  If  he  was  not  actually  the  most 
prominent  citizen,  there  were  very  few  who  equalled  him 
in  influence  and  in  the  public  esteem.  Soon  after  his 
resignation  of  his  pastorate,  it  became  evident  that  some 
new  arrangement  with  reference  to  the  chair  of  Doctrinal 
Theology  was  necessary  for  the  highest  interests  of  the 
Divinity  School.  The  Faculty,  indeed,  had  had  the 
subject  under  serious  consideration  for  one  or  two  years 
previous  to  this  time.  Professor  Porter  had  been  called 
upon  to  carry  forward  for  too  long  a  period  the  work  of 
this  professorship,  as  an  additional  burden  to  that  which 
pertained  to  his  office  in  the  Academical  Department. 
It  was  only  right  and  fitting,  that  he  should  be  no  longer 
asked  to  render  a  twofold  service.  The  release  of  Dr. 
300 


REV.    DR.    LEONARD   BACON 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Bacon  from  his  parish  duties  seemed  to  open  a  new  pos- 
sibility in  the  case;  and  after  deliberation  upon  the  mat- 
ter, the  Faculty  and  the  Corporation  united  in  the 
opinion  that  he  would  fill  the  position  with  much  success 
and  usefulness,  at  least  for  a  number  of  years  and  until 
a  younger  man,  having  all  the  desired  qualifications  for 
the  office,  could  be  secured.  Dr.  Bacon  was,  accord- 
ingly, requested  to  become  the  acting  professor.  He 
began  his  work  in  the  autumn  of  1866,  and  continued 
in  it  until  1871,  when  President  Harris  was  invited  to 
take  the  professorship.  The  authorities  of  the  school 
then  requested  Dr.  Bacon  to  accept  the  office  of  Lecturer 
on  Church  Polity  and  American  Church  History — sub- 
jects in  respect  to  which  he  was  eminently  fitted  to  give 
instruction.  This  office  he  held  from  1871  to  1881. 
On  the  24th  of  December,  1881,  he  died. 

His  work  in  the  Theological  School  was,  in  every 
line,  very  helpful  and  successful.  It  was  as  agreeable 
and  stimulating  to  his  own  mind  as  it  was  serviceable  to 
his  associates  and  his  pupils.  For  himself,  there  was 
opened,  at  the  moment  of  his  withdrawal  from  his  long 
and  busy  pastorate,  a  new  sphere  of  effort,  in  which  he 
could  find  ever-fresh  impulse  and  inspiration.  For  the 
institution,  the  advantage  of  his  wide  influence,  as  well 
as  of  his  intelligent  counsel  and  his  hearty  sympathy  and 
co-operation  in  all  labors  for  its  well-being,  was  secured. 
He  was  with  us  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the 
years  when  we  were  most  successfully  pressing  forward 
the  great  work  of  renewing  the  life  and  establishing  on  a 
satisfactory  basis  the  endowment  of  the  school.  His 
efforts  constituted  an  important  factor  in  the  accom- 
plished results,  the  significance  of  which  was  recognized 
by  his  colleagues.  He  rejoiced  as  sincerely  as  any  of 
our  number  in  the  final  realization  of  our  hopes. 

In  the  relations  of  the  Faculty  circle,  Dr.  Bacon  was 
all  that  could  have  been  desired.  He  was  the  oldest 
301 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

among  Ub,  and  had  long  since  attained  eminence  both  in 
his  own  profession  and  as  a  participant  and  leader  in 
great  movements.  His  position  and  life  had  accord- 
ingly been  such  as  would,  in  the  case  of  most  men,  have 
tended  to  self-assertion,  or  even  to  somewhat  of  the 
domineering  spirit.  So  far  from  this,  however,  in  his 
case  there  was  no  placing  of  himself,  in  any  way  or 
measure,  above  the  youngest  of  his  associates.  He  held 
his  mind  always  open  to  conviction,  as  he  listened  to  the 
arguments  of  others  or  discussed  serious  questions  with 
them.  When  he  differed  from  the  majority  of  his  col- 
leagues, he  yielded  his  opinions  as  gracefully  as  any  man 
could  have  done — opinions  too,  which  had  been  ex- 
pressed with  a  force  and  emphasis  characteristic  of  him- 
self. There  seemed  to  be  a  readiness  ever,  as  he  met 
with  us  in  our  deliberations,  to  lead,  or  to  be  led,  as  the 
occasion  might  seem  to  require,  to  the  end  of  realizing  the 
best  results.  He  was,  indeed,  a  whole-hearted,  whole- 
souled  man,  with  whom  it  was  an  unceasing  pleasure  to 
be  connected  in  the  intimate  relationships  of  the  Faculty. 
In  his  intellectual  gifts  Dr.  Bacon  was  a  man  of  re- 
markable character.  He  had  a  very  clear  and  distinct 
perception  of  truth,  and  laid  hold  upon  it  with  a  firm 
grasp.  His  logical  power  was  conspicuous  and  was  of 
the  order  pertaining  to  the  ablest  advocates  in  the  con- 
flicts of  thought.  He  had  an  extraordinary  memory, 
which  seized  upon  everything  of  importance  and  interest 
that  he  learned  or  read,  and  made  it  his  own  for  use 
whenever  it  was  needed.  His  mind  was  exceedingly 
rich  in  its  thinking.  It  was  awake  on  every  side,-  never 
inactive  or  at  rest,  effervescent  and  scintillating  with  wit 
and  brightness.  His  rhetorical  skill,  and  felicity,  as 
well  as  facility  of  expression,  were  equal  to  those  of  the 
best  English  writers.  He  had  powers*  of  oratory  that 
placed  him  on  a  level  with  the  ablest  orators  of  his  time. 
His  humor  was  so  exquisite  that  it  was  a  continual  charm 
302 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  listen  to  him  when  he  was  engaged  in  conversation 
with  friends.  His  poetic  sense  was  ever  clearly  mani- 
fest— in  his  written  discourses,  in  his  public  prayers,  in 
the  services  of  the  Church,  in  his  impressive  reading  of 
hymns,  and  in  the  tender  and  the  grand  hymns  of  which 
he  was  himself  the  author. 

It  was  not  strange  that  he  held  a  very  prominent  place 
in  the  city,  the  State,  and  the  Church.  He  was  designed 
by  nature  for  public  life.  His  powers  qualified  him 
for  the  part  which  he  took  in  the  great  struggles  and 
controversies  of  his  generation.  These  struggles  kin- 
dled his  ardor  and  excited  his  enthusiasm.  He  had  the 
spirit  of  a  true  soldier  in  a  conflict.  His  whole  heart 
and  soul  were  stirred  to  the  very  depths  by  the  long 
anti-slavery  contest,  alike  in  its  era  of  discussion,  and 
in  that  of  actual  warfare  which  followed.  He  lived 
through  the  whole  of  a  period  in  which,  whatever  may 
be  said  of  other  times,  there  was  a  call,  full  of  emphasis, 
upon  the  clergy  to  preach  on  themes  connected  with  the 
political,  as  well  as  the  moral,  well-being  of  the  country. 
His  voice  was  heard  in  all  these  years,  and  it  gave  forth 
its  utterances  with  no  uncertain  sound. 

As  a  citizen  of  Connecticut,  he  was  in  the  truest  and 
deepest  sense  loyal  to  the  commonwealth — to  its  his- 
tory, its  traditions,  and  the  ideas  which  it  had  always 
represented.  As  a  citizen  of  New  Haven,  he  took  a 
foremost  place  in  its  life,  even  from  his  early  manhood, 
and  in  his  later  years  he  had  a  position  in  the  esteem 
of  his  fellow  townsmen  which  was  quite  unique  and 
quite  his  own.  A  somewhat  amusing  illustration  of  this 
peculiar  influence  in  the  city  was  given,  about  the  year 
1875,  m  a  story  which  an  able,  and  rather  eccentric, 
pastor  of  one  of  the  Methodist  churches  related  concern- 
ing himself  and  his  own  experience.  He  said,  one  day, 
to  a  friend  of  mine,  "  I  never  knew  any  place,  in  which 
I  have  lived  before  my  coming  hither,  that  was  like 

303 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

New  Haven."  "  What  do  you  think  ?  "  he  added.  "A 
few  evenings  ago,  we  had  a  meeting  in  our  church  to 
consider  the  question  of  building  a  small  chapel  to  be 
used  for  the  purposes  of  the  church.  Now  in  all  the 
towns  where  I  have  lived,  when  the  Methodists  have  had 
any  question  relating  solely  to  their  own  interests,  they 
have  felt  entirely  adequate  to  make  their  decision  for 
themselves.  But  here,  after  the  discussion  had  gone 
on  for  some  little  time,  one  of  the  brethren  rose,  and 
said,  '  Has  any  one  learned  what  is  Dr.  Bacon's  opinion 
on  the  subject?  '  So  it  is  always  in  New  Haven.  Even 
Methodists  must  wait  to  know  Dr.  Bacon's  judgment 
before  they  take  action." 

This  power  of  his  in  the  community  was  the  more  re- 
markable, because  of  his  active  and  fearless  participa- 
tion in  the  controversies  of  the  time.  He  was,  as  we 
may  truly  say,  a  controversialist  by  nature  and  tempera- 
ment. Persons  of  this  character  are  wont  to  excite  hos- 
tility, and  to  retain  their  influence  only  with  those  of 
their  own  party.  But  men  who  knew  Dr.  Bacon,  as  his 
fellow-citizens  did,  recognized  him  as  he  truly  was,  in 
this  regard.  They  saw — or  they  gradually  came  to  see, 
as  he  moved  on  towards  later  life — that  he  was  a  con- 
troversialist, if  we  may  so  say,  in  the  region  of  the  mind 
rather  than  the  heart.  Even  as  he  uttered  his  impas- 
sioned denunciatory  words,  he  had  no  unworthy  bitter- 
ness of  feeling  towards  his  adversaries.  It  was  the  sin 
that  he  denounced;  not  the  sinner  apart  from  it.  He 
would  drive  away  the  evil,  and  would  reform  the  evil 
man.  As  the  last  years  came,  he  was  honored  and 
esteemed  by  every  one.  When  he  walked  through  the 
city  streets,  all  who  met  him  looked  upon  him  with  a 
reverential,  and  even  an  affectionate  feeling.  They  felt 
that  he  had  honored  the  town  by  his  presence  in  it,  and 
they  wished  for  him  long-continued  life  and  happiness. 

His  mind  was  very  rich  in  its  wit  and  humor.  His 
304 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

memory  held  in  its  possession  a  multitude  of  stories, 
which  he  narrated  with  great  effect  upon  those  who 
heard  them.  But  he  differed  from  ordinary  story- 
tellers, and  even  from  many  of  the  best,  in  two  important 
and  interesting  points.  In  the  first  place,  he  rarely,  if 
ever,  told  a  story  simply  for  its  own  sake ;  it  was  always 
used  to  enforce  or  illustrate  some  remark  or  statement 
that  he  was  making.  It  was,  in  the  second  place,  a  very 
uncommon  thing  for  him  to  repeat  a  story  in  the  hearing 
of  a  person  to  whom  he  had,  on  any  previous  occasion, 
related  it.  He  stood  thus  at  as  wide  a  remove  as  pos- 
sible from  the  class  of  men  who  tell  stories  in  succession, 
by  the  hour  as  it  were,  and  likewise  from  those  whose 
humor  and  wit  are  limited  to  story-telling.  His  humor 
was  in  his  thoughts  and  the  expression  of  them.  He 
was,  therefore,  never  wearisome,  as  some  humorists, 
even  of  high  repute,  occasionally  are. 

The  witticisms  which  made  his  conversation  with  his 
friends  attractive  seemed  always  to  be  instantaneous 
flashes  of  thought,  coming  into  his  mind  as  suddenly  as 
they  came  forth  from  it.  In  the  most  full  and  complete 
sense,  they  were  his  own  and  characteristic  of  himself.  A 
record  of  many  of  them,  if  it  could  have  been  preserved, 
would  have  a  peculiar  interest.  But  they  belonged 
mainly,  of  course,  to  the  passing  moment  of  their  utter- 
ance. I  may  mention  an  instance  of  his  wonderful  quick- 
ness which  comes  to  my  mind  as  I  am  writing.  In  a 
little  company  of  gentlemen  who  had  assembled  one 
evening,  in  accordance  with  their  custom  of  meeting 
together  from  time  to  time,  a  question  arose  as  to  a  paper 
to  be  written  or  public  address  to  be  delivered,  in  regard 
to  which  it  was  desired  that  some  one  of  very  special 
ability  should  be  assigned  to  the  work  of  preparing  it. 
Dr.  Woolsey  and  Dr.  Bacon  were  the  two  oldest  and  the 
two  most  prominent  men  who  were  present  at  the 
meeting.  They  were  college  classma'tes,  and  had  been 

305 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

intimate  friends  ever  since  their  graduation.  As  it  hap- 
pened, Dr.  Bacon's  name  was  the  first  in  the  alphabet- 
ically arranged  list  of  the  class,  and  Dr.  Woolsey's  the 
last.  When  the  discussion  of  the  question  had  been  car- 
ried on  for  a  little  time,  Dr.Woolsey  said  that  Dr.  Bacon 
was  the  man  among  them  all  to  do  the  work — he  had 
the  gifts  and  the  learning — he  had  the  eloquence  and 
rhetorical  power — he  was  the  one  whom  his  class,  the 
Class  of  1820,  always  selected  for  such  an  emergency 
because  he  was  in  this  regard,  even  as  he  was  in  the  cata- 
logue, the  head  of  the  class.  After  he  had  finished  his 
urgent  remarks,  and  had  become  silent,  Dr.  Bacon  very 
quietly,  but  immediately,  said:  "There  are  some  animals, 
and  the  Class  of  1820  is  one  of  them,  whose  strength  is 
in  their  tails."  The  subject  was  exhausted,  and  the  de- 
cision made. 

I  remember  that,  on  another  occasion,  when  a  discus- 
sion on  the  subject  of  additional  instruction  in  English 
Literature  was  under  consideration  at  a  similar  meeting, 
I  had  myself  spoken  with  some  earnestness,  and  at  some 
length,  upon  the  manner  of  teaching  the  classics  which 
was  at  that  time  (thirty-five  years  ago)  prevalent  in  all 
our  colleges.  I  had  called  attention  to  the  excess  of 
grammar,  in  all  the  instruction,  as  compared  with  the 
vocabulary  and  the  literary  elements  of  the  language, 
and  to  the  consequent  fact,  that  young  men  gave  up  read- 
ing the  ancient  classics  after  their  graduation.  I  had 
said  also,  what  I  have  thought  and  said  since  then,  that 
college  graduates  would  read  as  little  English,  as  they 
then  read  the  classical  languages,  if  they  knew  the  vocab- 
ulary as  little,  and  were  as  absolutely  dependent  on  the 
constant  use  of  a  dictionary.  Soon  afterward,  when  it 
came  to  be  the  Doctor's  turn  to  speak,  he  said:  "If 
English  is  to  be  taught  after  the  style  which  Professor 
Dwight  sets  forth  in  speaking  of  the  classics,  in  my  judg- 
ment there  should  be  no  additional  instruction;  for, 
306 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

when  the  new  additions  have  been  made,  our  graduates 
will  not  know  how  to  read."  We  teach  the  classics  in 
a  better  way  now,  and  the  danger  which  the  Doctor 
pointed  out  so  keenly  is  diminished,  if  it  has  not  disap- 
peared. 

I  may  give  another  illustration  of  the  fitness  and 
idiosyncrasy,  if  I  may  use  the  word,  of  the  terms  or 
phrases  which  he  used  in  the  expression  of  his  humor. 
One  of  the  older  professors  in  the  institution  at  that  time 
was  very  learned  as  a  scholar,  but  was  somewhat  slow 
and  undemonstrative — as  some  thought,  dry — as  a 
teacher.  A  friend  was  speaking  of  him  to  Dr.  Bacon, 
and  saying  that  it  seemed  very  unfortunate,  and  much 
to  be  regretted,  that  one  who  had  so  much  knowledge 
as  the  Professor  evidently  possessed,  did  not  in  a  higher 
degree  stimulate  his  classes.  "  Yes,"  said  Dr.  Bacon, 
"  he  is  an  excellent  man,  and  an  admirable  scholar,  but 
he  needs  a  dose  of  bumble-bees."  The  possible  useful- 
ness of  bumble-bees  in  the  sphere  of  the  materia  medica 
has  often  impressed  itself  upon  my  mind,  since  I  heard  of 
Dr.  Bacon's  proposed  remedy.  There  are  cases  among 
teachers,  where  this  is  the  only  medicine  which  can  effect 
a  cure.  But  it  is  very  difficult  to  apply  the  remedy  where 
it  is  especially  needed. 

In  the  case  of  this  old  professor,  however,  there  was 
an  occasion  when  he  evidently  took  the  medicine  for 
himself.  He  was  a  man  who  conscientiously  and  relig- 
iously condemned  negro  slavery,  and  was  intolerant  of  it 
and  of  sympathy  with  or  acquiescence  in  the  system.  On 
a  certain  summer  afternoon,  about  the  year  1855,  he  met 
a  gentleman  of  his  acquaintance  on  the  street — a  gentle- 
man who  commonly  lived  in  one  of  the  most  southern 
states  during  the  winter,  but  was  accustomed  to  spend 
the  milder  season  of  the  year  in  New  Haven.  As  this 
meeting  of  the  two  happened  to  be  the  first  in  that  ye* 
they  naturally  greeted  each  other,  and  had  a  brief  con- 

307 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

versation  before  they  separated.  In  the  course  of  the 
conversation,  the  Professor  said:  "I  have  sometimes 
wondered  how  you  are  able  to  live  comfortably  in  a  slave 
State."  "  Why  so?"  said  the  gentleman.  "You  believe 
slavery  is  wrong,  do  you  not?"  said  the  Professor. 
"  Yes,"  was  the  reply.  "  And  you  are  an  anti-slavery 
man?"  "  Yes."  "And  are  ready  to  express  your  senti- 
ments here?"  "  Yes."  "  But  if  this  be  true,  how  can 
you  get  on  comfortably  at  the  South?"  "  Oh,"  said  the 
gentleman,  "I  get  on  well,  because  I  do  not  say  any- 
thing on  the  subject  when  I  am  there."  After  a  few 
words  more,  the  two  men  parted,  and  each  went  his 
way.  The  next  morning,  they  chanced  to  meet  again 
on  the  street.  The  Professor  said,  "  Good  morning, 
Mr.  B."  The  gentleman  replied  with  a  similar  greet- 
ing. The  Professor  then  went  through  the  questions 
and  answers  of  the  preceding  day,  and  asked  if  his 
statement  of  each  was  correct,  and  received  from  the 
gentleman  an  affirmative  response.  "  Well,"  said  the 
Professor,  "I  have  been  thinking  over  your  course  of 
action  since  we  met  yesterday;  and  I  consider  it  a  mean 
one.  I  bid  you  good  morning."  Then  he  turned,  and 
passed  on  his  way.  The  medicine  had  evidently  been 
taken,  at  least  on  this  one  occasion,  and  had  had  its 
effect.  The  quiet  scholar  and  unemotional  teacher  had, 
for  the  moment,  surpassed  even  what  Dr.  Bacon  himself 
could  have  done. 

The  quickness  of  Dr.  Bacon's  mental  action  and  his 
fertility  in  thought  were  manifest  to  every  one  who  came 
within  the  circle  of  his  acquaintance.  I  have  said  of 
him  oftentimes  in  the  past,  and  others  have  said  the  same 
thing,  that  he  seemed  to  have  more  fresh  thoughts  in  a 
day  than  most  men,  even  men  of  ability  and  culture,  have 
in  a  week.  Herein,  indeed,  was  one  of  the  marked 
peculiarities  of  the  man,  and  one  which  rendered  him 
exceedingly  interesting.  As  a  consequence  of  it,  he  was 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

able,  with  quickness  of  vision,  to  see  both  sides  of  a 
question  under  discussion,  and  often  to  state  the  argu- 
ments on  both  sides  as  fully,  and  even  more  clearly  than 
any  one  else.  Sometimes,  when  the  topic  was  not  one 
of  serious  importance,  or  was  one  to  which  he  happened 
to  be  giving  no  very  careful  consideration,  he  might 
easily  be  led,  by  reason  of  this  rapid  thinking,  to  advo- 
cate, within  an  hour  or  two,  two  opposite  opinions.  I 
remember  myself  to  have  led  him,  quite  to  my  surprise, 
to  do  this  on  one  or  more  occasions.  But  these  were,  if 
I  may  so  express  it,  only  playful  movements  of  his  mind. 
With  reference  to  great  questions,  and  matters  of  real 
significance,  he  was  thorough  in  his  investigations;  well- 
grounded  and  well-established  in  his  judgment;  firm 
and  strong  in  his  convictions;  a  man  adapted  to  press 
forward  as  an  earnest  advocate  in  every  good  cause. 
The  playful  movement,  however,  was  in  itself  delightful, 
and  withal  it  showed  how  generous  and  tolerant  and 
large-hearted  he  was.  It  proved  helpful  also  to  those 
who  were  engaged  with  him  in  a  common  effort  for  the 
accomplishment  of  some  desirable  end.  It  opened  the 
way  for  persuasion,  since  he  had  a  listening  ear  for  every 
reasonable  suggestion,  and  was  thus  altogether  free  from 
the  obstinacy  of  one-sided  and  prejudiced  men.  He  had 
much  of  what  the  Apostle  James  calls  the  wisdom  that 
is  from  above,  which  is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle, 
easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits, 
without  partiality,  and  without  hypocrisy.  His  quickness 
of  thought,  I  may  add,  both  enabled  and  disposed  him 
to  be  an  active  intellectual  worker.  He  was  always  read- 
ing, studying,  writing,  speaking,  putting  forth  his  mental 
energies  in  every  way.  The  mind,  in  his  case,  never  went 
to  sleep.  It  knew  no  dead  line  of  fifty,  of  which  many 
talk;  or  even  of  sixty,  or  of  seventy.  He  was  ever  the 
same — to  the  very  last — full  of  new  ideas,  full  of 
energy,  full  of  hope,  full  of  life.  .-It  was  a  beautiful 
309 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

picture  of  the  scholarly  and  thoughtful  man,  which  he 
presented  to  the  people  of  his  Church  when,  at  the  end 
of  forty  years  of  service,  he  asked  to  be  released  from 
the  duties  of  the  pastoral  office,  and  said  to  them  of 
himself  and  his  outlook  toward  the  future,  "I  know  more 
now  than  I  knew  a  year  ago.  I  hope  to  know  more  next 
year  than  I  know  now."  And  again,  ten  years  later,  as 
a  true  Christian  scholar,  he  said,  "I  know  more  to-day 
— more  adequately  and  exactly — what  God  reveals  to 
us  by  the  Bible,  than  I  knew  fifty  years  ago — more  than 
I  knew  ten  years  ago ;  and  I  am  still  a  learner,  and  hope 
to  be  a  learner  to  the  end." 

It  was,  indeed,  a  happy  thing  for  one's  experience, 
and  for  one's  remembrance  afterwards,  to  be  for  fifteen 
years  associated  with  such  a  man  in  the  close  relations  of 
the  Theological  Faculty.  It  was  an  inspiration  to  be  in 
daily  intercourse  with  an  older  colleague  who  was  ever 
wakeful,  ever  learning,  ever  reaching  out  for  greater 
things,  and  ever  abounding  in  hope  of  the  larger  and 
better  life  of  the  coming  time.  So  he  was  with  us  even 
to  the  end.  He  met  his  classes  on  the  last  day  of  the 
autumn  term,  just  before  the  vacation  for  the  Christmas 
season.  He  then  gave  himself  to  the  discussion  of  one 
of  the  great  questions  that  were  at  the  time  awakening 
national  interest,  and  on  the  evening  of  December  23d 
he  was  engaged  in  writing  a  paper  on  the  subject  for 
publication.  When  the  hour  for  retirement  for  the 
night  arrived,  he  left  the  paper  unfinished  on  his  table, 
intending  to  add  what  might  be  needful  on  the  day  that 
should  follow.  But  at  an  early  morning  hour,  soon  after 
the  dawn  of  the  winter  day,  his  spirit  passed  beyond  our 
earthly  sight.  There  seemed,  indeed,  to  be  no  ending  of 
a  life,  as  he  left  us,  but  only  an  entrance,  in  answer  to  a 
loving  call,  into  a  new  sphere  of  mental  and  spiritual 
activity — a  sphere  larger  and  more  full  of  beauty  than 
that  which  had  opened  itself  for  the  efforts,  and  realized 
in  its  measure  the  possibilities,  of  the  earlier  years, 
310 


XVII. 

Dr.    Woolsey's    Administration — Some   Men    of   His 
Time,  1846-71. 

IN  the  year  1871,  which  was  so  memorable  in  the 
history  of  the  Divinity  School,  the  administration 
of  President  Woolsey  came  to  its  end.  The  quar- 
ter of  a  century  which  was  included  within  his  official 
term,  as  is  evident  from  what  has  been  already  said 
respecting  it,  was  a  period  of  great  interest  and  im- 
portance in  the  history  of  the  entire  institution.  Before 
writing  further,  however,  of  its  work  and  its  results,  1 
may  allow  myself,  not  unsuitably  as  I  think,  to  say  a. 
few  words  respecting  some  of  the  other  central  officialt 
of  the  College  in  the  years  between  1858  and  1871. 
The  Secretary  of  the  Corporation  during  the  greatei- 
part  of  this  period  was  Wyllys  Warner.  The  office  oi 
Treasurer  was  held  successively  by  Edward  C.  Herriclj 
and  Henry  C.  Kingsley. 

Mr.  Warner  was  a  graduate  of  the  College,  of  tin 
Class  of  1826.  He  studied  theology  in  the  years  fol- 
lowing his  graduation,  and  was  ordained  to  the  ministry. 
In  1833,  he  became  Treasurer  of  the  institution.  Thife 
office  he  held  for  nineteen  years  until  1852,  when,  on 
account  of  somewhat  enfeebled  health,  he  offered  his 
resignation.  Six  years  later  he  was  asked  to  take  the 
position  of  Secretary,  which  he  accepted  and  retained 
until  his  death  in  1869.  From  the  days  of  his  student 
life  as  a  member  of  the  Theological  Department,  he 
seems  to  have  been  deeply  interested  in  its  welfare  and 
earnest  in  his  desire  that  its  means  of  usefulness  might 

3" 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

be  enlarged.  His  earliest  efforts  in  the  financial  sphere, 
even  while  he  was  still  pursuing  his  studies,  were  put 
forth  in  its  behalf.  Subsequently,  in  1830,  he  became, 
by  request  of  the  College  authorities,  an  active  agent 
in  the  work  of  securing  the  fund  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  for  the  further  endowment  of  the  institu- 
tion which,  as  already  stated,  was  the  first  great  move- 
ment of  the  kind  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century.  His 
success  in  this  important  enterprise,  it  is  believed,  was 
the  determining  cause  of  his  call,  three  years  afterwards, 
to  take  charge  of  the  entire  business  of  the  treasury. 
The  duties  of  this  office  he  discharged  with  fidelity  and 
efficiency.  He  was  one  of  the  most  energetic  solicitors 
of  funds,  and  one  of  the  most  successful  of  those  whom 
the  institution  has  had  in  its  service,  if  the  matter  of 
success  and  energy  be  measured  by  the  possibilities  of 
that  era.  He  deserves  to  be  held  in  kindliest  memory 
by  all  who  are  interested  in  the  progress  and  develop- 
ment of  Yale. 

As  for  myself,  I  place  his  name  upon  these  pages  with 
grateful  recognition,  for  it  was,  in  no  inconsiderable 
measure,  due  to  him  that  my  appointment  to  the  chair 
in  the  Divinity  School  was  made  when  it  was.  He  had 
just  been  elected  Secretary  of  the  Corporation  when  I 
returned  from  Europe,  and  was  consequently  present 
at  the  meeting  of  that  body  in  September,  1858,  which 
was  held  for  <"he  purpose  of  appointing  a  successor  to 
Dr.  Taylor  in  the  Doctrinal  Professorship.  After  the 
vote  upon  this  important  matter  had  been  taken,  the 
question  of  adding  a  new  instructor  in  the  Biblical 
department  was  presented  for  consideration.  The 
limited  condition  of  the  funds,  however,  made  the 
members  of  the  body  hesitant,  and  disposed  to  defer  any 
definite  action  until  a  later  time.  Mr.  Warner  had  been 
for  a  long  period  the  Treasurer  of  the  institution,  but 
he  had  also  been  active  in  increasing  its  resources. 

312 


PRESIDENT   THEODORE    D.    WOOLSEY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

He  had  thus  realized  in  himself  not  only  the  caution 
which  treasurers  sometimes  have,  but  also  the  impelling 
force  which  is  essential  for  the  men  who  would  seek 
additions  to  the  treasury.  He  had  the  outlook  towards 
the  future,  and  not  simply  the  thought  of  the  present. 
With  this  outlook,  he  felt  that  the  time  for  a  forward 
movement  had  now  come,  and  he  said,  with  courage  and 
emphasis,  that  the  school  needed,  at  that  critical  mo- 
ment, a  young  man  in  its  Faculty,  who  should  have 
already  made  some  progress  in  his  work,  and  have  be- 
come, in  some  measure,  master  of  the  situation,  before 
the  older  men  passed  off  the  stage.  His  words  were 
effective,  and  the  result  was  a  happy  one  for  me — deter- 
mining my  future  at  that  early  moment.  The  financial 
venture,  on  the  part  of  the  Corporation,  was  not  a  very 
serious  one, — at  least,  it  would  not  appear  so,  as  viewed 
from  the  standpoint  of  to-day — for  there  had  fallen  into 
the  possession  of  the  school,  within  a  few  weeks,  a 
small  legacy,  and  the  salary  of  the  young  professor, 
though  more  than  the  income  of  the  new  fund  and  quite 
beyond  that  of  my  predecessor  when  he  was  first  called 
to  his  office,  was  not  large  enough  to  frighten  any  one 
except  the  person  who  received  it. 

It  is  interesting  to  look  back  over  the  old  records  of 
Mr.  Warner's  work  from  1830  to  1835,  and  to  see  what 
the  contributions  to  the  funds  were  at  that  time,  as  com- 
pared with  what  we  look  for  in  these  days.  When  an  ef- 
fort was  made  in  1834  and  1835  to  secure  the  sum  neces- 
sary for  the  erection  of  the  old  Divinity  Hall,  which 
stood  at  a  little  remove  from  North  College  and  in  a  line 
with  what  we  now  speak  of  as  the  Old  Brick  Row,  it 
was  ascertained  that  thirteen  thousand  dollars  would 
be  required.  There  were  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty 
donors  to  this  fund — two  of  whom  gave  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  each,  and  three  others  five  hundred  each.  The 
contributions  of  two  hundred  and "  forty-five  persons 

313 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

were,  accordingly,  needed  to  make  up  the  remainder  of 
the  amount  desired — that  is  to  say,  eighty-five  hundred 
dollars.  When  we  think  of  the  labor  which  was  involved 
in  seeing  and  persuading  such  a  number  of  persons,  we 
may  fitly  give  an  honorable  place  in  our  records  to  the 
names  of  the  men  who  heroically  performed  it.  We 
may  congratulate  ourselves  also,  that  we  live  in  an  era 
of  larger  gifts. 

In  this  connection  I  recall  the  story  of  an  experience 
of  Mr.  Warner,  which  he  related  to  me  in  the  first  years 
of  my  professorial  career.  At  the  time  of  his  efforts 
on  behalf  of  the  Divinity  School,  in  the  early  thirties, 
the  theological  controversies  between  what  were  called 
the  Old  and  New  School  parties  in  Connecticut  were 
at  their  height.  Dr.  Taylor  was  the  leader  of  the  New 
School  party  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  Theological 
Seminary  of  which  he  was,  in  a  sense,  the  head  was 
exposed  to  the  violent  opposition  of  the  Old  School 
men.  These  men  were  pastors  of  many  of  the  churches 
in  the  State  and,  among  them,  of  some  which  were 
located  in  towns  not  far  from  New  Haven.  To  one  of 
these  neighboring  towns  Mr.  Warner  first  took  his 
way,  making  his  journey  with  his  own  horse  and  chaise, 
as  there  were  no  railroads  in  Connecticut  at  the  time. 
Having  reached  his  destination  he  established  himself 
at  a  house  of  entertainment,  and  proceeded  to  make  a 
beginning  of  his  work.  He  called  upon  a  certain  gentle- 
man in  the  village  who,  after  hearing  his  presentation 
of  the  case,  made  him  a  gift  of  five  dollars.  As  the 
evening  was  drawing  near,  he  returned  to  his  place  of 
temporary  abode,  intending  on  the  next  day  to  continue 
his  solicitations.  When  the  morning  came,  however,  he 
learned  that  the  pastor  of  the  church  had  already  been 
informed  of  the  gift  which  he  had  received  for  the 
Divinity  School,  and  had  become  so  excited  and  incensed 
by  the  fact,  that  he  had  done  his  utmost  to  rouse  his 

314 


REV.  WYLLYS  WARNER 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

parishioners  to  hostility  to  the  intruder  upon  his  domain, 
and  to  a  refusal  to  listen  to  his  requests.  The  result 
was  that  Mr.  Warner  was  obliged  to  leave  the  town. 

A  suggestive  story  indeed  this  is — suggestive,  not 
only  in  the  sphere  of  theology,  but  likewise  in  that  of 
money.  The  sum  of  five  dollars  was  helpful  and  en- 
couraging to  the  college  worker  of  that  period.  It 
was  the  cause  of  alarm  and  indignation  to  his  theological 
opponent.  My  colleagues  and  myself,  in  our  efforts  to 
secure  endowments  for  the  school  a  generation  later, 
had  a  happier  lot,  in  that  we  labored  in  an  era  when 
party  strifes  had  diminished,  and  when  the  possibilities 
of  gifts  had  increased.  Mr.  Warner,  however,  was  not 
discouraged  by  his  experience,  but,  in  accordance  with 
the  bidding  given  to  the  apostles,  when  rejected  in  one 
place  he  moved  onward  to  another;  and  finally  his  work 
was  completed.  The  matter  of  securing  the  fund  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  College  was,  of  course, 
a  much  larger  undertaking,  but  it  was  equally  successful. 
It  was  free  from  some  of  the  special  difficulties  which 
attended  the  other  enterprise,  yet  the  limitations  in  the 
amounts  of  individual  gifts  were  conspicuous  in  com- 
parison with  what  we  have  become  accustomed  to  in 
more  recent  times. 

Mr.  Herrick  was  called  into  the  service  of  the  College 
at  the  time  when  the  fund  for  the  erection  of  a  building 
for  the  College  and  Society  Libraries  was  secured.  This 
building,  which  is  now  commonly  called  the  Old  Li- 
brary, was  first  occupied  in  the  year  1843.  The  College 
Library  had,  for  twenty  years  previously,  been  located 
in  the  fourth  story  of  the  Chapel  of  that  period.  It 
consisted  of  not  more  than  about  fifteen  thousand  vol- 
umes. The  use  made  of  it  was  quite  limited.  It  was 
opened  only  once  or  twice  a  week,  and  there  was  little, 
if  any,  provision  for  persons  desiring  to  pursue  investiga- 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

tions.  Undergraduate  students  of  the  two  lower  classes 
had  no  access  to  it,  while  those  of  the  two  upper  classes 
availed  themselves  only  occasionally  of  the  privileges 
which  were  allowed  them.  The  completion  of  the  new 
building  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  for  the  institu- 
tion in  this  regard. 

No  more  satisfactory  appointment  to  the  office  of 
Librarian  could  have  been  made,  at  that  critical  moment, 
than  that  which  was  determined  upon  by  the  Corpora- 
tion, when  they  turned,  with  unanimous  sentiment, 
towards  Mr.  Herrick  as  the  man  for  the  position.  He 
was  then  thirty-two  years  of  age.  He  was  not,  indeed, 
a  graduate  of  the  College — having  been  prevented  by 
special  circumstances  from  pursuing  his  studies  in 
preparation  for  the  academic  course.  But  he  had  had 
peculiar  and  very  favorable  opportunities  for  gaining 
that  intimate  knowledge  of  books  which  is  of  essential 
importance  to  one  who  is  to  have  charge  of  a  college 
library.  His  mind  was  most  alert  and  active  on  every 
side.  It  was  so  alert  and  active  that  he  must  have 
become  a  thoroughly  educated  man,  as  it  would  seem, 
however  unfavorable  might  have  been  the  condition  in 
which  he  was  placed.  But,  by  good  fortune,  he  was 
placed  where  he  had  the  possibility  of  acquaintance  with 
the  best  literature,  and  also  with  educated  and  learned 
men.  His  self-cultivation,  therefore,  was  rendered  com- 
paratively easy  and,  as  the  result,  he  made  himself  the 
peer  of  his  associates  of  the  Faculty.  His  acquirements 
in  different  languages  were  of  no  ordinary  character. 
In  the  domain  of  science,  especially  in  entomology  and 
astronomy,  he  was  not  only  an  investigator,  but  a  dis- 
coverer as  well.  His  interest  in  these  studies  continued 
undiminished  throughout  his  life.  In  historical  research, 
especially  with  reference  to  the  history  of  New  England 
and  Connecticut,  he  was  remarkable  both  for  his  en- 
thusiasm and  his  accuracy.  In  his  later  years  his  mind 
316 


EDWARD  C.  HERRICK 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

had  become,  as  it  were,  a  storehouse  of  knowledge  and 
information  respecting  the  graduates  of  the  College. 
As  a  student  of  words  all  regarded  him  as  an  authority, 
and  for  this  reason  his  services  were  called  for,  in 
large  measure,  in  connection  with  the  edition  of  Web- 
ster's Dictionary  which  was  published  in  1847,  and 
with  other  editions  issued  before  his  death. 

In  conversation,  he  had  great  attractiveness,  being  full 
of  intelligence,  rich  in  his  command  of  language, 
felicitous  by  reason  of  a  peculiar  humor,  and  winsome 
because  of  his  kindly  spirit.  He  seemed  to  know  some- 
thing of  everything  that  was  worth  knowing — a  happy 
result  of  a  broad  education  in  the  best  order  of  men; 
in  his  case,  the  result  of  the  brightness  and  ardor  of  a 
mind  which  was  ever  ready  to  put  forth  its  energies  on 
all  sides.  He  watched  the  stars,  and  communed  with 
them,  by  night.  He  rose  with  the  dawn  or  the  sun-rising 
in  the  morning,  and,  before  the  beginning  of  the  day 
for  other  men,  he  had  already  accomplished  a  large 
portion  of  his  daily  task.  Whenever  a  friend  called 
upon  him,  therefore,  he  appeared  to  be  at  leisure — not 
fretted  or  troubled  because  of  interruptions;  perfectly 
free  to  converse  on  any  subject  of  interest;  in  full  posses- 
sion of  all  the  time  and  strength  which  the  friend  might 
ask  him  to  place  at  his  disposal.  The  generosity  with 
which  he  offered  his  personal  service  to  others  whom  he 
found  to  be  in  need  manifested  itself  at  all  times,  and 
was  as  conspicuous  in  his  relations  to  the  poor  of  the 
city  as  it  was  with  reference  to  those  who  enjoyed  the 
privilege  of  intimate  acquaintance  with  him.  He 
abounded  in  sympathy  for  college  men  when  they  were 
in  financial  difficulties,  or  in  any  way  distressed,  and 
made  known  to  him  their  trials  or  their  wants.  The 
wisdom  of  the  wise  was  united  in  his  character  with  the 
simplicity  of  the  child.  In  mind  and  heart  he  was 
helpful  to  all.  With  this  spirit  of  helpfulness,  he  made 

317 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  library  of  the  institution  a  center  of  intellectual  life 
for  the  college  community — a  source  of  light  and  knowl- 
edge for  those  who  were  eager  learners,  and  a  working- 
place  for  the  men  who  were  willing  to  search  into  the 
deeper  things. 

For  nine  years  he  rendered  his  valuable  and  faithful 
service  in  his  office  as  Librarian,  giving  himself  wholly, 
and  with  increasing  satisfaction,  to  the  discharge  of  the 
duties  which  it  involved.  At  the  end  of  those  years,  in 
1852,  when  Mr.  Warner's  impaired  health  constrained 
him  to  give  up  his  position  as  Treasurer  of  the  College, 
Mr.  Herrick  was  selected  by  the  Corporation  as  the 
person  best  qualified  to  fill  the  place.  With  considerable 
reluctance,  he  accepted  the  appointment,  but  for  the  six 
following  years  he  held  the  two  offices.  In  1858,  he 
was  released  altogether  from  his  duties  in  the  Library, 
and,  from  that  time  until  the  end  of  his  life,  he  devoted 
himself  exclusively  to  the  work  of  the  Treasury.  In 
this  work  he  proved  to  be  as  successful  as  he  had  been 
in  his  former  position.  He  was  open-minded,  energetic, 
possessed  of  much  financial  skill  and  wisdom.  In  the 
organization  of  the  office  and  its  business,  he  made 
improvements  upon  the  earlier  time,  which  were  at  once 
recognized  as  advantageous,  and  which,  in  some  respects, 
have  retained  their  influence  even  to  the  present  day. 

An  instance  or  two  of  Mr.  Herrick's  humor,  of  no 
significance  except  by  way  of  example,  I  give  from  my 
memory  of  him.  Hundreds  of  others  more  worthy  of 
record  may,  doubtless,  be  recalled  by  other  friends  who 
knew  him  intimately.  He  was,  as  I  have  already  said, 
a  lover  of  the  stars,  and,  like  all  astronomers  as  I  sup- 
pose, he  loved  them  more  than  he  loved  the  moon.  He 
watched  them  on  the  clear  starry  nights  with  infinite 
delight.  To  the  common  mind,  on  the  other  hand,  how- 
ever beautiful  the  stars  may  seem,  the  moonlight  has 
even  a  more  wonderful  charm.  One  evening,  a  friend 
318 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  mine  was  talking  with  him  and,  in  the  course  of  the 
conversation,  expressed  the  pleasure  felt  in  the  bright 
moonlight  of  the  preceding  night.  "Oh,"  said  he,  "it  was 
beautiful  enough;  but  did  you  not  notice  that  it  ob- 
scured the  brilliancy  of  the  stars?"  "Yes,"  was  the 
reply,  "but  I  like  to  see  the  moon  better  than  I  do  to  see 
the  stars."  "Impossible,"  he  answered;  "it  cannot  be  so, 
for  what  intelligent  person  has  ever  thought  the  charms 
of  Diana  equal  to  those  of  Venus?" 

On  another  occasion,  in  a  talk  with  the  same  friend, 
a  lecture  by  a  scientific  gentleman  which  had  just  been 
given  on  the  subject  of  earthquakes  was  spoken  of.  Mr. 
Herrick  lived  directly  opposite  this  friend  on  one  of  the 
city  streets,  and  in  a  house  rented  of  a  gentleman  who, 
in  the  sphere  of  money,  had  the  reputation  of  being 
very  anxious  and  watchful.  In  the  course  of  the  con- 
versation, my  friend  expressed  a  sense  of  apprehension 
connected  with  earthquakes,  and  their  destructiveness  as 
portrayed  in  the  lecturer's  discourse,  and  asked  Mr. 
Herrick  if  he  did  not  have  some  of  the  same  disquieting 
fears.  "Oh,  no,"  he  replied,  "I  have  no  anxious  thoughts 
about  earthquakes.  I  rent  my  house  from  my  neighbor, 
whose  character  you  well  know,  and  I  leave  all  the  fears, 
and  the  reckoning  as  to  losses,  to  him."  Even  on  the 
last  day  but  two  of  his  life — when  the  final  illness, 
though  he  knew  it  not,  was  just  coming  upon  him — the 
same  humor  of  his  nature  was  manifested.  On  the 
afternoon  of  that  day  he  had  a  long  and  evidently 
wearisome  talk — one  of  many  such — with  a  worthy  gen- 
tleman, a  benefactor  of  the  College  withal,  who  was 
noted  for  the  continuousness  of  his  discourse.  On  his 
way  from  his  office  to  his  house,  at  the  close  of  the  after- 
noon, he  called  on  his  physician,  and  said  to  him,  "I  am 
unwell,  and  wish  a  remedy  which  will  cure  me  imme- 
diately, as  I  have  no  time  now  to  be  sick."  The  physi- 
cian asked  him  what  he  had  been  doing  that  should  have 

319 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

brought  on  such  an  attack  of  weakness.  He  replied,  "I 
know  of  nothing  except  that  I  have  had  a  conversation 
of  two  and  a  half  hours  with  Mr.  X."  It  was  always 
thus — some  unexpected  turn  of  thought  or  peculiar  form 
of  expression  would  give  new  life  to  all  that  was  said, 
and  the  hearer,  however  often  he  had  met  him  before, 
would  be  charmed  with  a  new  vision  of  the  brightness 
of  his  mind. 

The  oak  tree  near  the  Battell  Chapel  on  the  College 
grounds,  which  is  now  so  beautiful  in  the  autumn  season, 
was  planted  by  him,  and  is  a  pleasant  memorial  of  him 
for  those  who  remember  his  interest  in  its  early  growth. 
I  wish  that  it  might  bring  him,  in  a  vision  of  his  generous, 
manly  life,  to  all  the  sons  of  Yale.  But  as  the  older 
generations  pass  away  and  the  new  ones  come  forward 
in  our  college  world,  the  men  of  the  by-gone  days  are 
soon  forgotten. 

It  was  a  touching  request  which  Mr.  Herrick 
made  of  his  friends  just  before  the  ending  of  his  life 
— that  the  inscription  on  his  monument  should  be  as 
simple  as  possible,  and  that  there  should  be  no  eulogy. 
He  had  done  his  work  well;  with  noble  impulse;  with 
ceaseless  energy;  with  loving  helpfulness;  with  wise 
intelligence;  with  happy  success; — a  work  for  others, 
rather  than  himself,  and  for  a  good  and  worthy  cause. 
But  he  had  now  come  to  the  hour  when  the  soul  looks 
inward  upon  itself  and  onward  to  the  great  future,  and 
words  of  praise  seem  far  beyond  its  thoughts  and  outside 
of  its  real  life.  His  request  was  characteristic  of  his 
manhood.  His  principle  of  action  was  to  leave  every- 
thing to  which  he  gave  his  efforts  better  than  he  found 
it.  But  he  looked  for  his  reward  in  the  accomplishment 
of  the  work,  and  he  asked  for  nothing  more. 

Mr.  Herrick's  successor  in  the  Treasurership,  as 
already  intimated,  was  Henry  C.  Kingsley.  His  official 

320 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

career  extended  over  a  period  of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  from  1862  to  1886.  The  College,  within  this 
period,  was  rapidly  developing  toward  the  University. 
It  was  a  time  when  larger  life  was  continually  opening — 
the  time,  indeed,  when  the  change  from  the  limitations 
of  the  earlier  part  of  the  century  to  what  is  now  realized 
was  beginning  to  make  itself  clearly  manifest.  This 
change  was  as  marked  in  the  sphere  of  the  treasury,  as 
it  was  elsewhere ;  and  though  progress  here  was  slow  in 
comparison  with  that  which  has  characterized  the  more 
recent  years,  the  Treasurer's  office  required  a  wider 
vision  than  before,  and  a  greater  executive  power  in 
the  financial  line.  Mr.  Kingsley  had  been  connected 
with  the  business  affairs  of  a  railroad  company  for  some 
years,  and  previously  had  been  an  active  worker  in  the 
legal  profession.  His  experience,  accordingly,  fitted 
him,  in  a  very  considerable  measure,  for  the  new  duties 
which  he  was  called  to  take  upon  himself.  His  mental 
gifts  also  qualified  him  for  the  office  assigned  him.  The 
history  of  his  administration  of  the  office  is  an  interesting 
part  of  the  College  history,  and  gives  abundant  proof 
of  his  wisdom  and  success  and,  at  the  same  time,  of  his 
generous  and  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  the  welfare  of 
the  institution. 

Mr.  Kingsley  was  a  son  of  Professor  Kingsley,  and 
he  had  many  of  the  characteristics  of  his  father.  He 
was  a  man  of  unusual  ability,  but  disposed  by  nature  to 
self-withdrawal  and  retirement.  He  resembled  his 
father  in  his  fondness  for  historical  investigation,  being 
much  given  to  reading.  He  had  somewhat  of  his  father's 
clearness  and  facility  in  the  expression  of  his  thoughts 
in  writing.  A  measure  of  his  father's  wit  was,  likewise, 
an  inheritance  of  his,  though  it  was,  in  his  case,  far  less 
frequent  in  its  display  of  itself.  He  was,  by  no  means, 
a  mere  business  man,  but,  at  the  same  time,  a  man  of 
321 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

scholarly  culture — at  home,  by  reason  of  his  sympathies 
and  acquirements,  in  the  academic  circle. 

The  first  nine  years  of  Mr.  Kingsley's  official  career 
belonged  to  the  period  of  which  I  have  been  writing  in 
the  preceding  chapters — the  period  from  1858  to  1871. 
He  was  a  kindly  friend  to  us  who  were  of  the  Theologi- 
cal Department,  in  those  critical  years,  aiding  us  with 
generosity  according  to  the  special  need  of  the  time, 
whether  in  the  way  of  wise  counsel,  or  of  efficient  man- 
agement of  funds  received,  or  of  personal  gifts.  I  was 
myself  brought  into  somewhat  close  relations  to  him  in 
connection  with  our  financial  efforts,  and  was  an  observer 
of  his  methods,  as  well  as  of  his  tendencies,  in  the  matter 
of  investments.  He  seemed  to  me,  as  I  believe  he  did 
to  all  who  were  acquainted  with  him  in  this  department 
of  his  life,  to  be  characterized  by  much  wisdom.  He 
carried  in  his  mind  and  memory,  not  only  all  the  details 
of  importance  pertaining  to  the  funds,  but  also  the  his- 
tory of  the  office  and  everything  connected  with  it.  As 
a  consequence,  he  was  always  ready  to  act  with  prompt- 
ness and  efficiency.  He  was  prepared  for  all  emergencies, 
and  was  so  skillful  in  his  management  of  the  resources 
of  the  institution  that  he  succeeded  in  keeping  its  income 
very  nearly,  if  not  quite  undiminished,  notwithstanding 
the  lessening  of  the  rates  of  interest  which  began  to 
be  realized  in  the  later  years  of  his  official  term. 

The  three  successive  Treasurers  were  men  widely 
different  from  one  another,  but,  happily  for  the  College, 
each  one  of  them  had  the  special  qualifications  which 
the  period  of  his  service  seemed  to  require.  They  were 
all  equally  consecrated  to  the  interests  of  the  institution 
— putting  forth  their  energies  continually  under  the 
guidance  of  their  financial  wisdom,  and  never  losing 
heart  or  courage  in  their  work.  The  office  of  the 
Treasurer  in  a  university  is  very  near  the  center  of  its 
322 


HENRY  C.  KINGSLEY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

life's  forces.     The  man  who  fills  the  office  with  large 
intelligence  and  success  cannot  be  too  highly  esteemed. 

The  Corporation  of  the  College  in  1858  consisted, 
as  had  been  the  case  since  1792,  of  the  Governor  and 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  State  and  six  members  of 
the  State  Senate,  together  with  the  President  and  ten 
Clerical  Fellows  who  were  the  successors  of  the  original 
trustees.  The  senators  were  quite  irregular  in  their 
attendance  at  the  meetings  of  the  body  and,  as  their 
term  of  political  service  was  usually  very  short,  they 
took  but  little  interest  in  college  matters.  The  ten 
ministers  and  the  President  were  the  real  power  in  the 
institution.  They  constituted  the  majority  of  the  Board, 
and  exercised  authority  as  their  predecessors  of  the  early 
days  had  done. 

These  ten  ministers  of  the  year  1858,  who  elected  me 
to  my  professorship,  were  remarkable  for  the  long  con- 
tinuance of  their  official  service.  One  of  them  remained 
in  the  membership  of  the  body  for  forty  years,  from 
1821  to  1861 ;  two  others  for  thirty-nine  years;  a  fourth 
for  thirty- four  years;  a  fifth  for  twenty-eight;  a  sixth 
for  twenty-five ;  and  a  seventh  and  eighth  for  twenty-one 
years.  They  were  all  pastors  of  churches,  with  the 
exception  of  ex-President  Day.  Their  pastorates  in  the 
churches  where  they  were  then  preaching  had  extended 
over  a  long  period;  in  the  case  of  three  or  four  of  them, 
over  a  period  of  more  than  forty  years.  They  were  in 
this  respect  representatives  of  the  earlier  age,  when 
changes  of  settlement  were  comparatively  infrequent, 
and  when  the  young  minister,  as  he  was  called  to  his 
first  parish,  might  naturally  think  of  it  as  the  field  of  his 
life-long  labor.  All  except  two  were  residents  of  the 
smaller  towns  of  the  State,  but  they  were  men  of  recog- 
nized ability  and  of  more  than  ordinary  influence  not 
only  in  their  own  neighborhood,  but-  also  among  the 

323 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

ministry  throughout  the  commonwealth.  No  wonder 
that  they  seemed  old  to  me  when  they  called  me  into 
their  service.  Several  of  them  had  been  settled  in  the 
ministry  before  I  was  born.  One  of  them  was  of  the 
same  class  with  my  father,  and  another  of  the  next 
preceding  class,  while  a  third  was,  like  President  Day, 
a  member  of  the  first  company  of  students  on  whom  my 
grandfather,  as  President,  had  conferred  the  Bachelor's 
degree.  They  were  indeed,  as  Daniel  Webster  said 
in  addressing  the  surviving  soldiers  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  venerable  men  who  had  come  down  to  us  from  a 
former  generation.  But  old  as  they  were — or,  rather, 
as  they  seemed — they  turned  a  kindly  eye  and  thought 
towards  me,  and  I  am  grateful  to  them  for  it. 

The  ministers  of  the  earlier  half  of  the  century, 
especially  if  they  continued  for  a  long  period  in  the  same 
place,  acquired,  in  many  instances,  a  certain  Pope-like 
character  and  power,  which  rendered  them,  as  it  were, 
an  essential  element  in  the  life  of  the  community.  The 
towns  or  cities  were  influenced  and  moulded  by  the  per- 
sonality of  these  ministers  in  a  way  and  measure  which, 
in  this  age  of  changes,  can  scarcely  be  appreciated.  They 
were  not  merely  leading  men,  but  the  leading  men,  in 
the  town  or  city  commonwealth.  Three  or  four,  at  least, 
of  this  body  of  ten  clergymen,  of  whom  I  am  writing, 
had  this  remarkable  and  wide-reaching  influence  and 
power.  They  were  men  of  authoritative  nature,  and 
they  had  the  impulse  ever  abiding  within  them  to  ex- 
ercise and  strengthen  their  natural  gifts  in  this  regard. 
Some  of  them,  indeed,  exerted  their  powers  in  a  more 
quiet  and  gentle  way;  others  after  a  manner  more  de- 
monstrative and  forceful.  But  none  left  the  powers 
unused.  Such  cities  as  Hartford  and  New  London,  and 
such  smaller  towns  as  Farmington  and  Norfolk,  have 
not  yet  lost  out  of  their  characteristic  public  life  what 
was  wrought  for  them  by  the  long-continued  presence 
324 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

within  their  borders  of  Drs.  Joel  Hawes  and  Abel  Mc- 
Ewen,  Drs.  Noah  Porter  and  Joseph  Eldridge.  These 
towns  will  make  manifest  the  results  of  their  work  and 
their  personality  in  the  coming  time,  though  years 
and  generations  may  remove  the  living  citizenship  from 
all  remembrance  even  of  their  names.  The  places  that 
knew  them  may  know  them,  as  the  Scripture  says,  no 
more  forever.  But  life  in  those  places  will  have  within 
itself  a  vigor  and  a  richness  which  came  from  them. 

The  most  striking  personality  in  the  company  was  Dr. 
Joel  Hawes,  of  Hartford.  He  had  been,  for  more  than 
the  life-time  of  a  generation,  the  pastor  of  the  First 
Church  of  that  city  and  was  known  as  a  man  of  influence 
by  every  citizen.  His  personal  appearance  was  impres- 
sive. Nature  had  not,  indeed,  been  generous  to  him  in 
the  elements  of  manly  beauty  or  grace.  Quite  the 
opposite.  There  was  force,  as  well  as  intelligence,  in 
his  face,  but  his  features  were  rugged  and  even  homely. 
His  figure  was  gaunt,  and  his  gait  and  bodily  movement 
were  awkward.  In  stature,  however,  he  was  tall  and, 
in  a  sense,  commanding.  I  do  not  know  why  it  was  so, 
but  he  appeared  to  be  taller  than  any  one  else — taller 
even  than  men  who  were  of  equal  height  with  himself. 
Though  differing  almost  as  widely  as  possible  from  that 
distinguished  preacher  of  recent  years,  he  resembled  in 
this  respect  the  late  Dr.  John  Hall,  of  New  York.  Each 
of  the  two  men  produced  on  the  minds  of  those  who  met 
them  the  impression  of  bodily  stature  which  was  beyond 
all  ordinary  limits,  and  which  was  so  remarkable  as  to 
justify  and  render  appropriate  a  certain  benignity  of 
manner,  as  if  they  were  looking  down  upon  others  with 
a  kind  of  paternal  interest.  No  inconsiderable  measure 
of  Dr.  Hall's  power  was  connected,  as  it  seemed  to  me, 
with  this  fact,  and  the  same  was  true  in  the  case  of  Dr. 
Hawes.  Their  physical  presence,  even  in  and  of  itself, 

325 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

added  to  their  effectiveness  in  the  pastoral  relation,  and 
enabled  them  to  make  their  genuine  and  tender  interest 
in  the  soul's  well-being  of  their  parishioners  more  mani- 
fest, and  also  more  fruitful  in  results.  No  two  ministers 
within  the  last  half-century,  in  our  country,  have  had 
a  larger  measure  of  such  genuine  interest — of  the  sincere 
desire  to  help  the  inner  life  of  others — than  had  they. 

As  a  preacher  Dr.  Hawes  was  of  the  older  type.  He 
presented  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  which  he  had  received 
from  the  fatherss  and  to  which  he  had  accorded  his 
unhesitating  belief.  He  did  this  with  a  directness  and 
force  that  gave  his  discourses  a  peculiar  power  for  the 
minds  of  his  hearers.  He  was  often  called  upon  for 
service  in  other  cities  than  his  own,  in  cases  of  special 
religious  awakenings  or  revivals.  His  preaching,  at 
such  times,  exhibited  a  seriousness  and  earnestness  of 
tone  and  manner  which  were  characteristic  of  but  few 
even  in  that  revivalistic  period.  As  an  intimate  and 
highly  esteemed  friend  of  Professor  Fitch,  he  was  invited 
to  the  College  pulpit,  during  my  undergraduate  career, 
whenever  the  thoughts  of  the  student  community  turned 
with  more  than  ordinary  interest  to  the  questions  of  per- 
sonal Christian  life  and  duty.  No  preacher  from  the 
sphere  outside  of  the  College,  at  such  times,  made  a 
deeper  impression  on  the  students,  or  was  more  heartily 
welcomed  by  them.  The  appeal  which  he  made  was 
directed  to  the  central  personality  of  the  individual  man, 
and  it  reached  the  inmost  soul.  The  call  to  repentance 
and  renewed  character,  as  it  came  from  him,  had  in  it 
the  solemnity  of  the  great  issues  of  the  future,  while  his 
persuasive  exhortations  were  full  of  the  force  of  his  own 
experience.  I  cannot  doubt  that  many  of  the  students 
of  those  days  remember  him,  in  these  later  years  of 
their  life,  as  the  Christian  preacher  who  first  awakened 
them  to  religious  thoughtfulness  or  stirred  them  to  a 
new  and  more  complete  consecration  of  themselves  to 
326 


REV.  DR.  JOEL  HAWES 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  service  of  Christ.  They  all  felt  that  he  was  himself, 
in  the  deepest  sense,  under  the  influence  of  the  powers 
of  the  world  to  come,  and  that  his  one  object  in  his 
preaching  was  to  bring  his  hearers  under  the  same  influ- 
ence. 

Dr.  Hawes  was  not,  indeed,  a  great  preacher,  nor  a 
great  man,  as  his  neighbor  in  the  ministry,  Dr.  Horace 
Bushnell,  was.  He  had,  in  no  sense,  the  characteristics 
of  Dr.  Bushnell  as  an  independent,  ever  restless,  ever 
advancing  thinker.  On  the  contrary,  he  moved  in  the 
sphere  of  already  established  thought,  and  was  satisfied 
with  what  he  had  received — the  faith,  as  he  would  have 
said,  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints.  The  two  men, 
if  I  may  so  express  it,  were  built  up  from  the  very 
foundation  after  a  different  plan.  So  widely  apart  did 
they  stand  in  their  mental  constitution  and  nature,  that 
they  were  unable  to  appreciate  or,  in  any  considerable 
measure,  understand  each  other.  But,  however  great  or 
forceful  Dr.  Bushnell  was — and  the  world  has  its  own 
high  estimate  of  him — Dr.  Hawes  also  had  a  power 
peculiar  to  himself  such  as  any  man  might  desire  to 
possess  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men. 

He  was  a  man  of  very  noticeable  idiosyncrasies. 
Much  as  we  respected  and  honored  him,  we  of  the  Col- 
lege community  were  wont  to  tell  of  these  and  often  to 
be  diverted  by  them.  The  same  thing  was  true  with 
reference  to  his  friends  and  neighbors  in  Hartford. 
Their  regard  and  even  veneration  for  him  continued  ever 
undiminished,  but  they  were  ready  always  to  repeat  to 
one  another,  or  to  those  whom  they  knew  elsewhere, 
pleasing  anecdotes  illustrating  the  peculiarities  of  the 
honored  pastor  and  preacher.  Some  of  these  set  forth 
his  imperious  tendencies;  others,  the  singularities  of  his 
manner  and  address;  others  still,  his  attitude  towards 
younger  and  older  men.  He  was — what  very  many  men 
are  not — a  person  of  whom  anecdotes  could  be  freely 

327 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

told  which  afforded  amusement  to  those  who  heard  them, 
while  they  added  to  the  hearers'  interest  in  the  man, 
without  in  the  least  lowering  him  in  their  esteem. 

In  comparison  with  his  parishioners  and  fellow-towns- 
men, I  saw,  of  course,  but  little  of  him  in  his  daily  life. 
Yet  even  to  us,  who  were  farther  removed  from  the 
center  of  his  living,  there  were  occasional  revelations 
which  made  it  clear  that  he  was  no  ordinary  personage. 
When  I  was  ordained  to  the  ministry,  in  1861,  he  was 
invited  by  the  College  authorities  to  be  the  preacher  of 
the  occasion.  Very  characteristically  of  himself — for  he 
was,  in  unusual  measure,  a  laudator  temporis  acti,  and 
had  much  distrustfulness  of  the  present  and  its  imme- 
diate issues  in  the  future — he  selected  as  his  topic  of 
discourse,  "The  decline  of  power  in  the  pulpit."  The 
theme  was  not  a  very  encouraging  one  for  a  young 
preacher  just  beginning  his  work.  He  could  hardly 
regard  it  as  a  happy  "send  off"  in  his  new  career,  or  as 
a  word  of  very  good  omen  for  his  success  in  his  profes- 
sion. But  the  young  preacher,  in  this  particular  instance, 
had  some  knowledge  of  his  elder  brother  or  father  in 
the  ministry;  and  so  he  took  courage  from  his  own 
hopes,  instead  of  yielding  to  another's  fears,  and  thus 
strengthened  his  heart  in  spite  of  the  gloomy  vision  set 
before  him. 

I  confess  that,  in  the  passing  of  the  years,  I  have 
forgotten  almost  everything  that  the  venerable  Doctor 
said  in  his  sermon.  But  one  or  two  matters  connected 
with  it  have  remained  in  my  memory  even  until  now. 
The  good  man  remarked,  as  he  opened  his  discourse 
and  stated  his  subject,  that  he  should  devote  himself  to 
the  consideration  of  two  leading  questions: — first,  What 
are  the  causes  of  the  decline  of  power  in  the  pulpit,  and 
secondly,  What  are  the  remedies?  Having  dwelt  with 
considerable  minuteness,  and  at  reasonable  length,  upon 
the  several  points  involved  in  the  first  of  the  two  ques- 
328 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

tions,  he  turned  to  the  second,  saying,  I  now  ask,  What 
are  the  remedies  ?  and  I  answer,  Remove  the  causes ! 

Strange  to  say,  I  did  not,  at  the  time,  regard  this  as 
a  very  happy  way  of  answering  the  inquiry  or  developing 
the  subject.  It  seemed  to  me  even  somewhat  amusing. 
But  I  was  young  then,  and  inexperienced.  The  long 
years  since  that  hour  have  made  me  realize  that  there  are 
many  cases  in  human  life  where  the  only  effective  remedy 
is  to  be  found  in  the  worthy  Doctor's  suggestion :  Re- 
move the  causes.  In  college  history,  as  well  as  in  the 
history  of  the  world  outside,  how  true  it  is,  that  we 
discuss  and  try  to  wrestle  with  difficulties  or  evils,  and 
waste  thought  and  effort  while  we  wait  as  patiently  as 
we  can,  perhaps  for  years,  only  to  learn,  by  a  slow  and 
sorrowful  teaching,  that  the  one  remedy  has  alone  in 
itself  the  healing  power — that  when,  and  only  when, 
the  cause  is  removed,  can  the  happy  result  be  realized. 
How  often  I  have  thought  of  this  sufficient  remedy, 
when,  alas,  it  could  not  be  applied.  And  yet  I  must 
admit  that,  however  penetrating  and  incisive  this  lead- 
ing thought  of  the  preacher  was,  his  discourse — as  he 
developed  it  by  a  new  consideration  of  each  individual 
cause,  in  connection  with  the  proposed  remedy — seemed 
to  my  mind,  at  the  time,  to  be  less  characterized  by  a 
continuous  advance  of  ideas  than  it  might  have  been; — ' 
that  it  had  less  than  one  could  have  wished  of  what 
Dr.  Blair,  the  old  Scotch  writer  on  Rhetoric,  declares 
to  be  essential  to  an  Epic  poem ;  namely,  a  beginning,  a 
middle,  and  an  end.  So  I  failed,  at  the  time,  to  lay 
the  teaching  to  heart  for  my  opening  life  as  a  preacher, 
and  quieted  myself  with  a  smile  at  the  Doctor's  lugu- 
brious view  of  the  younger  generation. 

I  recall  an  anecdote  illustrative  of  this  general  order 
of  thought,  on  the  Doctor's  part,  respecting  young  men 
as  compared  with  those  who  were,  like  himself,  in  the 
329 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

older  years,  which  was  told  me  once  by  a  young  parish- 
ioner of  his,  now  a  man  of  advanced  life  and  very  widely 
known.  On  a  certain  occasion,  in  the  later  period  of 
the  Doctor's  pastorate,  this  gentleman  and  a  number  of 
his  youthful  associates  who  were  in  their  early  manhood, 
interested  themselves  greatly  in  preparations  for  a  Sun- 
day evening  meeting  in  the  old  First  Church  of  Hart- 
ford, which  was  to  be  conducted  entirely  by  the  young 
men  of  the  congregation.  The  program  for  the  occasion 
was  most  carefully  arranged,  the  speakers  selected,  and 
everything  provided  for  in  the  most  definite  and  satis- 
factory way.  A  committee  of  the  young  gentlemen  then 
waited  on  the  pastor,  and  asked  him  to  preside  at  the 
meeting.  At  the  same  time,  however,  they  explained  to 
him  what  they  had  in  mind,  and  urged  upon  him  to 
make  no  change  in  the  program,  as  all  the  speakers 
were  to  be  the  young  men  whose  names  were  given  on 
the  printed  order  of  exercises.  He  assented  to  their 
request,  and  they  went  forward  with  much  satisfaction. 
In  due  time,  the  meeting  was  held.  The  venerable  pastor 
took  the  chair  as  the  presiding  officer,  and  began  the 
order  of  proceedings  as  appointed.  He  called  succes- 
sively upon  the  youthful  speakers,  until  four  or  five  of 
them  had  given  their  brief  addresses.  But,  after  a  little 
while,  it  was  noticed  by  persons  who  were  near  him 
that  he  was  becoming  more  and  more  restive  and  ap- 
parently dissatisfied.  Finally,  as  one  of  the  speakers 
finished  what  he  had  to  say,  and  another  was,  according 
to  the  program,  to  be  called  forward,  the  Doctor  was 
overheard  saying,  in  a  suppressed  tone,  to  himself, 
"This  thing  has  been  going  on  long  enough."  Then, 
immediately  in  a  loud  voice,  he  said,  "Chief  Justice 
Ellsworth,  will  you  make  a  few  remarks?" 

I  was  myself  present  at  what  the  Doctor  called  a 
social  religious  meeting  of  his  church,  at  which  all,  he 
said,  were  to  speak  freely  as  they  felt,  when  something 
330 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

similarly  illustrative  of  his  characteristics  occurred.  It 
was  in  the  time  of  the  Civil  War.  After  the  Doctor 
had  spoken  at  considerable  length  on  the  demoralizing 
influences  of  the  war  and  the  dangers  which  threatened 
the  spiritual  life  of  the  people,  and  one  or  two  others 
had  followed  with  other  and  more  general  thoughts,  a 
very  prominent  member  of  the  church  rose  and,  in  a 
brief  address,  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  pastor  had 
taken  too  gloomy  a  view  of  the  matter,  and  stated  that, 
in  his  own  mind,  the  outlook  for  the  future  with  refer- 
ence to  religion  was  bright.  As  this  gentleman  resumed 
his  seat,  the  Doctor  immediately  said,  "Nobody  doubts 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  will  finally  come,  but  I  was 
speaking  of  the  manifest  evils  which  threaten  us  in  the 
present  and  the  near  future.  Mr.  Jones,  will  you  close 
the  meeting  with  prayer?" 

These  little  incidents  show  the  man  in  the  aspects  of 
his  character  to  which  reference  has  been  made.  He 
had  a  happy  outlook  towards  the  past.  The  golden 
vision  was  there.  The  virtue  and  the  good  which  be- 
longed to  it  were  in  remembrance.  The  evil  was.  lost 
out  of  it.  But  as  for  the  present  and  its  movement  into 
the  early  future — he  was  conscious  of  the  imperfection 
and  the  dangers.  Too  often  he  noted  with  inward  grief 
and  apprehension  the  decline  everywhere,  even  as  he 
thought  he  clearly  saw  the  decline  of  power  in  the  pulpit. 

All  this  was,  in  part,  the  result  of  his  distrust — the 
distrust  which  older  men  oftentimes  have,  in  greater  or 
less  degree, — of  the  ability  and  power  of  the  younger 
generation.  It  was  also  due,  in  part,  to  the  imperious 
nature  of  the  man.  This  imperiousness  was  not  allied 
to  tyranny.  It  was  the  strongly  developed  governmental 
disposition  which  pertains  to  the  executive  order  of  men, 
many  of  whom  are  most  reasonable,  and  even  ready  to 
yield  to  wise  and  just  views  which,  at  first,  were  not  their 
own,  but  were  pressed  by  others,  yet  almost  all  of  whom 
331 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

have  confidence  in  their  individual  personal  powers  as 
qualifying  them  to  take  the  position  of  leaders.  In  a 
conversation  which  I  held  with  Dr.  Hawes  soon  after- 
he  had,  in  his  advanced  life,  asked  his  people  to  give 
him  a  colleague  in  his  ministerial  labors,  an  allusion  was 
made,  by  chance,  to  Dr.  Noah  Porter,  of  Farmington, 
who  had  just  then  presented  a  similar  request  to  his  own 
church.  I  said  to  Dr.  Hawes  that  Dr.  Porter,  as  I 
understood,  had  declared  his  purpose  to  pass  over  his 
work  entirely  into  the  hands  of  his  younger  associate,  and 
to  be  himself  simply  the  pastor  emeritus.  The  Doctor 
quickly  and  energetically  replied,  "I  shall  not  do  this." 
He  was  not  able  voluntarily  to  withdraw  from  the  com- 
mander's position.  He  did  not  have  the  gift  of  resign- 
ing,— which  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  rarest  gifts  possessed 
by  men. 

And  yet  I  well  remember  his  coming  to  my  college 
room  one  morning,  at  a  later  date,  and  saying  to  me, 
"I  have  just  now  been  writing  a  sermon;  and  what  do 
you  suppose  was  the  subject?"  I  replied  that  I  could 
not  conjecture.  He  answered,  "It  was  on  the  duty  of 
being  happy;  and  what  do  you  suppose  was  the  first 
head?"  On  my  giving  a  similar  reply  to  that  which  I 
had  previously  made,  he  said,  "It  was  this: — If  you 
want  to  be  happy,  don't  try  to  govern  the  world."  It 
was  a  charming  picture.  The  good  old  gentleman's 
thought  might  well  have  been  the  result  of  a  life-time's 
meditation  on  the  part  of  a  ruler,  who  had  come  to  see 
the  vanity  of  the  attempt  always  to  govern.  But  his 
tone  and  bearing,  as  he  uttered  all  the  words,  were  those 
of  a  man  who  had  no  more  idea  of  resigning  his  au- 
thority, than  he  had  of  losing  his  personal  identity.  If 
he  could  only  have  followed  for  himself  the  doctrine  of 
that  new  sermon  and  its  first  head,  he  would,  I  think, 
have  been  happier  in  his  latest  years.  But  it  was  not 
in  his  nature  to  do  so. 

332 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

The  excellent  Doctor  had,  like  many  of  the  preachers 
of  his  era,  a  more  constant  sense  of  the  uncertainty  of 
life  and  the  nearness  of  its  ending — or,  at  least,  greater 
readiness  to  give  expression  to  his  thought — than  the 
majority  of  his  more  recent  successors  in  the  ministerial 
profession  seem  to  have.  Even  beyond  his  own  con- 
temporaries, he  was  disposed  to  make  allusion  to  these 
solemn  subjects  in  his  public  discourses.  Indeed,  when- 
ever he  preached  in  the  College  Chapel,  he  spoke  with 
serious  earnestness  on  this  matter.  He  was  wont  to 
say,  on  each  occasion,  that  not  improbably  it  might  be 
the  last  on  which  he  would  have  the  opportunity  of 
urging  upon  his  hearers  the  message  of  the  Gospel.  So 
impressive  were  these  utterances  to  me  in  my  student 
days,  that  I  could  scarcely  credit  the  statement  which  I 
heard  ten  or  twelve  years  after  my  graduation,  that 
he  was  only  at  that  later  time  just  about  to  celebrate  his 
seventieth  birthday.  But  he  had  a  sweet  and  tender 
thought  of  the  entrance  into  the  other  life,  when  the 
ending  here  should  in  reality  have  come.  He  said  to 
me  one  day,  when  speaking  of  the  great  future,  "The 
crawling  worm  changes  into  the  winged  butterfly.  So 
of  ourselves.  I  think  of  the  life  beyond.  I  know  not 
what  it  will  be,  or  what  I  shall  be.  But  I  know — and 
that  is  enough — that  it  will  be  something  very  beauti- 
ful." However  long  I  may  live,  I  shall  never  forget  the 
words  which  he  said  to  me  on  that  day,  or  the  man  as 
he  said  them. 

My  acquaintance  with  the  other  members  of  the  Board 
was  more  limited  in  its  character.  I  will,  however,  add 
a  few  words  respecting  some  of  them.  Dr.  McEwen 
was  a  man  somewhat  after  the  order  of  Dr.  Hawes,  and 
he  exercised,  in  his  own  sphere  in  New  London,  a  ruling 
power  similar  to  that  of  his  colleague.  In  intellectual 
ability  he  was  quite  equal  to  any  of  his  associates.  In 

333 


MEMORIES     OF     VALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

moral  force  he  was  recognized  at  all  times  as  a  leader. 
His  earliest  desire  and  purpose,  as  he  thought  of  becom- 
ing an  educated  man,  were  to  enter  the  legal  profession. 
Some  of  his  friends,  in  his  later  life,  questioned  whether 
his  natural  gifts  would  not  have  found  in  the  work  of 
that  profession  larger  and  more  fitting  opportunities  for 
their  exercise.  But  the  call  to  the  ministry  came  to  him 
so  clearly  and  with  so  much  emphasis,  as  he  thought, 
that  there  was  no  doubt  in  his  own  mind  as  to  what  he 
ought  to  do.  His  efficiency  in  his  parish,  his  great  and 
long-continued  influence  over  his  associates  in  pastoral 
life,  and  the  universal  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  in 
the  city  where  he  lived  for  more  than  fifty  years,  gave 
satisfying  testimony  to  his  wisdom,  as  well  as  his  Chris- 
tian spirit  of  consecration,  in  his  yielding  obedience  to 
the  call  as  he  believed  himself  to  have  heard  it.  He 
was,  as  we  may  judge  in  view  of  the  record  of  his  life, 
one  of  the  men,  not  many  in  number,  who  have  fitness 
for  either  of  two  professions,  and  to  whom,  perchance, 
equal  success  will  open  whether  they  move  forward  in 
the  one  or  in  the  other. 

His  friend  and  colleague  in  the  Corporation,  Dr. 
Porter,  said  of  him,  soon  after  his  death  which  occurred 
in  1860,  "Domestic  life  was  his  greatest  earthly  delight. 
At  the  table,  at  the  fireside,  in  the  parlor  and  on  the 
way,  his  desire  and  his  power  to  please  made  him  pre- 
eminently the  light  and  joy  of  his  house.  In  the  morn- 
ing, he  of  all  the  family  arose  first.  It  was  part  of  his 
early  farmer  education — he  was  a  farmer's  son — to  make 
the  morning  fire.  It  was  at  the  fireplace  that  the  older 
children  used  to  meet  him,  morning  by  morning,  as 
they  left  their  beds.  There  they  first  learned  grammar, 
the  English  and  the  Latin,  at  his  lips,  and  there  he 
dramatized  for  their  entertainment  the  stories  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  And  there,  too,  before  the  chil- 
dren were  up,  as  he  once  remarked  to  a  friend  (rare 

334 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

instance  of  self-revelation  for  him)  'he  had  musings  in 
his  own  heart  before  God,  which  were  his  strength  and 
joy  for  the  day.'  "  The  statement  of  this  last  sentence — 
that  the  joy  of  his  morning  prayer,  as  he  sat  alone 
before  the  early  morning  fire  which  he  had  made,  was 
the  gladsome  experience  of  his  Christian  life — I  remem- 
ber to  have  heard  in  his  latest  years,  and  I  have  carried 
the  thought  of  it  in  my  mind  ever  since.  It  was  the 
filial  communion,  intimate  and  loving,  of  a  son  with  the 
Divine  Father. 

There  is  something  very  interesting  in  the  thought 
of  the  old  pastorates  which  continued  for  half  a  century 
— so  different  from  the  brief  and  rapidly  changing  ones 
of  to-day.  But  there  was  in  general  a  loss  of  effective- 
ness in  the  later  years,  I  think,  which  was  the  result 
of  the  length  of  time.  The  same  voice  had  been  too 
often  heard;  the  monotone  of  thought  had  become  a 
little  wearisome;  the  authority  of  the  governing  power 
had  begun  to  be,  in  some  measure,  a  burden.  "Forty 
years  would  have  been  the  better  limit,"  I  am  sure,  was 
the  thought  of  many  at  the  end.  But,  after  all,  there 
was  a  power  in  those  lives  of  the  former  time,  and 
the  men  who  lived  them  were  often  as  fully  qualified 
to  rule  as  they  were  disposed  to  do  so.  This  was  true 
of  Dr.  McEwen.  He  had  a  humor  withal  which  made 
him  a  reasonable  and  tactful  ruler,  as  he  showed  when 
the  ending  of  his  service  came.  At  this  time — though 
his  resignation  was  offered — the  prominent  men  of  his 
congregation  had  the  feeling  that,  in  view  of  his  char- 
acter and  history,  he  could  hardly  be  expected  willingly 
and  completely  to  give  up  his  power.  Some  of  them, 
accordingly — so  I  was  told  years  ago — waited  upon  him, 
and  frankly  stated  their  apprehensions.  They  then  pro- 
ceeded to  request  him  to  promise  that  he  would  not 
interfere  with  the  management  of  church  affairs  and 
the  church  life;  and  in  doing  this,  th'ey  presented  the 

335 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

matter  with  much  detail — asking  him  to  say  definitely 
that  he  would  refrain  from  all  action  in  each  particular 
case  specified.  He  assented  to  their  urgent  and  per- 
sistent requests.  A  short  time  after  the  interview,  and 
while  the  pastor's  office  was  yet  unfilled,  a  church  meet- 
ing was  held,  and  he  was  asked  to  open  it  with  prayer. 
To  the  surprise  of  all  present,  he  declined.  The  next 
day  one  of  the  church  members  met  him  on  the  street, 
and  questioned  him  as  to  the  reason  why  he  did  not 
offer  the  prayer  at  the  meeting.  "Oh,"  said  he,  "I 
agreed  that  I  wouldn't."  He  was  evidently  adequate 
to  the  emergency.  His  answer  showed  such  evenness 
of  temper  on  his  own  part,  and  at  the  same  time  carried 
with  it  such  a  felicitous  suggestion  respecting  the  pres- 
sure which  had  been  put  upon  him,  that  every  one  who 
heard  the  story  had  a  more  kindly  feeling  toward  him 
because  of  it.  To  the  end  he  remained  the  most  honored 
and  revered  citizen  of  the  city. 

Drs.  Porter  and  Eldridge  were  men  of  a  different 
type  from  the  two  whom  I  have  mentioned.  They  were 
far  more  content  to  influence  others  without  exercising, 
or  trying  to  exercise,  positive  control.  They  were,  both 
of  them,  men  who  were  satisfied  with  a  life  and  work 
in  the  quietness  of  a  small  country  town.  Dr.  Porter 
had  the  very  rare  fortune  of  holding  for  a  period  of 
more  than  fifty  years  the  office  of  pastor  in  the  church 
of  the  town  in  which  he  was  born  and  grew  to  manhood. 
As  his  life  moved  onward  he  seemed,  as  it  were,  to 
center  the  town  in  himself.  He  became,  more  and  more 
truly,  the  vital  force  and  inspiring  power  in  the  com- 
munity as  related  to  all  things  pertaining  to  the  higher 
sphere  of  living.  Young  and  old  alike  looked  upon  him 
with  reverence  and  love.  Children  and  grandchildren 
recognized  the  saintly  element  in  his  character  and 
yielded  themselves  to  its  influence,  as  the  parents  and 
336 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

grandparents  had  done  in  the  earlier  time.  As  Drs. 
Woolsey  and  Bushnell  said  of  him,  he  was  a  marked 
exception  to  the  universality  of  the  proverb :  A  prophet 
is  without  honor  in  his  own  country.  "And  yet,"  Dr. 
Bushnell  adds,  "it  was  not  honor  exactly  that  his  towns- 
men learned  to  pay  him,  but  something  deeper  and 
closer  to  necessity.  We  do  not  so  much  honor  our 
heads  as  accept  them,  and  let  them  go  through  our  body ; 
giving  dear  welcome  to  what  they  think,  contrive,  and 
impel  in  our  motions — all  the  benefits  they  propose,  all 
the  configurations  of  body,  and  feeling,  and  life  in 
which  their  sway  is  exerted.  So  he  grew  up  with  his 
people  as  they  grew,  went  with  them  week  by  week 
and  year  by  year  in  his  teachings,  and  they  took  him 
pervasively."  He  was,  indeed,  we  may  truly  say,  a 
beautiful  example  of  the  best  New  England  pastor  of 
the  olden  time. 

But  while  he  was  retiring-  in  his  disposition,  and 
content  with  his  home  surroundings  as  related  to  his 
work  and  his  enjoyment,  he  had,  by  reason  of  his  wisdom 
and  his  high  character,  his  unusual  intelligence  and 
equally  uncommon  soundness  of  judgment,  a  wide  in- 
fluence among  the  clergy  of  the  State.  His  counsel, 
therefore,  was  often  sought  for  and  greatly  valued. 
These  qualities  and  powers  made  him  a  very  useful  and 
highly  honored  member  of  the  Governing  Board  of  the 
College. 

Dr.  Eldridge  was  a  man  of  much  intellectual  power 
and  activity — among  the  ablest  ministers  of  the  common- 
wealth. But  he,  like  Dr.  Porter,  was  one  of  those 
who  live  happily  in  a  limited  sphere.  His  own  thoughts 
and  studies  were  more  to  him  than  anything  that  per- 
tained to  the  Wider  and  more  public  life  of  the  world. 
At  the  same  time,  he  held  himself  in  readiness  for  the 
call  of  duty,  whether  at  home  or  abroad.  When  moved 

337 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  action,  he  exhibited  the  natural  force  of  his  character. 
In  public  discussions  of  questions  of  importance  in  their 
bearings  upon  the  welfare  of  the  community  or  the 
Church,  he  was  often  roused  to  eloquence  in  the  ad- 
vocacy of  what  he  believed  to  be  right.  On  such  occa- 
sions he  displayed  true  oratorical  power. 

Dr.  Eldridge  and  his  college  classmate,  Rev.  Edwin 
R.  Gilbert,  a  gentleman  of  sterling  character  and  judi- 
cious in  his  opinions  and  actions,  were  the  youngest 
members  of  the  Board  at  the  time.  They  were  grad- 
uates of  twenty-nine  years'  standing,  and  had  already 
passed  beyond  the  age  of  fifty.  Most  of  the  other 
Clerical  Fellows  who  elected  me  to  my  professorship 
were  at  that  time  approaching  the  end  of  their  official 
career.  One  of  them,  however,  the  Rev.  George  J. 
Tillotson,  continued  in  the  membership  of  the  Corpora- 
tion for  thirty  years  after  that  date,  and  was  among 
those  who,  in  1886,  gave  me  the  appointment  to  the 
Presidency  of  the  institution.  His  term  of  service  ex- 
tended over  a  longer  period  than  that  of  any  other 
Fellow  of  the  College  since  its  foundation,  with  the 
exception  of  his  colleagues,  Dr.  Porter,  whose  term  was 
of  equal  length,  and  Dr.  David  Smith,  the  duration  of 
whose  official  life  exceeded  his  by  a  single  year.  Of 
the  membership  then  representing  the  State  all  have 
passed  beyond  this  life — some  of  them,  long  since.  They 
were  men  of  usefulness  in  their  time,  and,  as  indicated  by 
the  official  position  given  them  by  their  fellow-citizens,  of 
prominence  in  the  communities  to  which  they  belonged. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  me  to  remember,  as  I  look  back 
over  the  years,  that  among  this  company  of  gentlemen, 
whose  kindly  judgment  determined  my  life-work  for 
me,  was  the  venerable  man  who,  in  the  earliest  part  of 
my  undergraduate  course,  had  filled  the  chief  office  of 
administration  in  the  College.  That  the  benediction  of 
338 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

President  Day  rested  upon  me  at  the  beginning  of  my 
career  as  a  teacher  at  Yale  was  a  cause  for  gratitude. 

The  administration  of  President  Woolsey,  with  refer- 
ence to  its  main  features,  has  been  already  characterized 
in  the  description  which  I  have  given  of  the  man.  It 
was  certainly — as  is  fully  recognized  by  all  who  are 
familiar  with  its  record — one  of  the  great  administra- 
tions of  the  College  history.  That  which  especially 
distinguished  it  in  relation  to  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  institution,  was  the  higher  ideal  of  scholar- 
ship which  it  introduced.  It  was  this  that  gave  it  its 
prominence  in  the  order  of  progress  from  the  earlier 
days  towards  the  later  ones.  Following,  as  it  did,  after 
what  I  have  called  the  creative  period,  coincident  with 
the  first  Presidency  of  the  century,  and  also  after  the 
next  era,  when  the  principles  and  laws  of  the  permanent 
Yale  life  were  established,  it  seemed  to  have  its  place,  as 
if  by  a  Providential  arrangement,  just  where  and  when 
it  was  needed  with  reference  to  the  true  growth  of  the 
institution.  Its  work,  as  we  may  now  see  in  reviewing 
the  past  history,  would  have  been  unfitted  for  the  earlier 
days.  There  was,  for  the  best  interests,  a  necessity  that 
it  should  rest  upon,  and  have  its  beginning  in,  what  those 
days  had  accomplished  in  preparation  for  it.  Had  the 
work,  on  the  other  hand,  been  longer  delayed,  the  in- 
spiring force  in  the  subsequent  development  of  the  Uni- 
versity would  have  been  lost. 

The  growth  of  the  institution,  however,  manifested 
itself  during  the  years  of  his  Presidency,  not  only 
through  the  advance  in  scholarship,  but  in  other  spheres 
and  departments  of  its  life.  The  increase  in  the  number 
of  students  from  five  hundred  and  eighty-seven  to  seven 
hundred  and  fifty-five;  the  more  complete  organization 
of  the  Scientific  School;  the  establishment  of  the  School 
of  the  Fine  Arts;  the  earlier  work  "of  rebuilding  the 

339 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Theological  School;  the  first  movement  toward  the  be- 
ginning of  new  life  for  the  Law  Department;  the  pro- 
vision for  more  systematic  Graduate  studies; — all  these 
things  indicated  progress  which  was  worthy  of  the  new 
age. 

In  addition  to  Alumni  Hall  which,  as  mentioned  on 
an  earlier  page,  was  completed  in  1853,  seven  other  Col- 
lege buildings  were  erected  within  the  period  of  his 
administration : — three  of  them,  namely,  the  Old  Gym- 
nasium, afterwards  used  as  a  Dining  Hall,  Farnam  Hall 
and  Durfee  Hall,  for  the  Academical  Department;  two 
for  the  Divinity  School,  East  Divinity  Hall  and  the 
Marquand  Chapel;  one  for  the  Medical  Department; 
and  one  for  the  School  of  the  Fine  Arts.  The  decision 
which  was  made  by  the  College  authorities  to  place 
Farnam  and  Durfee  Halls  where  they  now  stand  de- 
termined the  plan  of  the  quadrangular  arrangement  for 
the  future,  and  also  the  final  removal  of  the  older  build- 
ings of  the  so-called  Brick  Row.  The  permanent  loca- 
tion of  the  Scientific  School  was  also  settled  by  the 
assignment  to  it  of  the  Medical  College  building  facing 
College  Street  at  its  north  end,  which  was  vacated  when 
the  Medical  Department  took  possession  of  its  new  quar- 
ters on  York  Street. 

The  first  marked  event  of  his  era  in  relation  to  the 
enlargement  of  the  resources  of  the  institution  was  the 
movement  for  the  securing  of  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  to  which  allusion  has  been  made  on  an  earlier 
page.  The  addition  of  this  fund  to  the  limited  endow- 
ment of  the  College  was  most  serviceable  at  the  time, 
and  had  much  significance  as  bearing  upon  the  future. 
Other  and  very  valuable  gifts  were  received,  within  the 
period  of  his  administration  for  purposes  immediately 
connected  with  the  work  of  instruction,  as  well  as  for  the 
erection  of  needed  buildings,  among  which  those  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Street  for  the  School  of  the  Fine  Arts,  that  of 
340 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Mr.  George  Peabody  for  the  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory, and  the  earliest  donations  of  Mr.  Sheffield  for  the 
Scientific  School,  are  deserving  of  special  mention.  The 
available  funds  of  the  College  were  increased  in  these 
twenty-five  years  by  nearly  or  quite  a  million  dollars. 
The  President  and  his  associates  in  the  Faculties  cer- 
tainly wrought  well  and  accomplished  a  good  work  in 
this  sphere  of  effort,  where  successful  results  are  so 
essential  to  the  institution's  life. 

At  the  close  of  his  Presidency,  Dr.  Woolsey  was  elected 
to  membership  in  the  Corporation,  as  one  of  the  Clerical 
Fellows,  as  his  predecessor,  Dr.  Day,  had  been  under 
like  circumstances.  The  election  in  each  of  the  two  cases 
was  a  gratification  to  the  ex-President  and  in  accord- 
ance with  his  wishes,  I  am  sure,  even  as  the  acceptance 
of  the  offered  position  on  the  part  of  each  was  gratifying 
to  the  Board.  Each  of  the  two  was  also,  in  his  turn,  an 
able  and  valuable  member  of  the  body  during  the  years 
of  his  continuance  in  it.  The  wisdom  and  counsel  of 
each  were  highly  appreciated.  It  has  been  for  a  long 
period,  however,  my  personal  feeling  that  it  is  better  for 
the  President  to  retire  altogether  from  the  College  gov- 
ernment when  he  withdraws  from  his  administrative  of- 
fice— to  the  end  that  his  successor  may  have  the  least 
possible  hindrance  in  carrying  out  his  own  views.  The 
judgment  of  these  two  venerable  gentlemen  may  have 
been  wiser  than  my  own,  but  mine,  as  I  think,  is  worthy 
of  consideration,  and  it  has  governed  my  personal  action. 

Dr.  Day  continued  to  hold  his  position  in  the  Corpor- 
ation, as  already  intimated  on  an  earlier  page,  for  twen- 
ty-one years  after  he  left  the  Presidential  office.  Dr. 
Woolsey  remained  in  his  membership  for  fourteen  years. 
Each  of  them  was,  accordingly,  in  the  Board  until  very 
near  the  end  of  his  successor's  official  term. 


XVIII. 

Dr.  Porter's  Presidency — Some  Men  of  His  Era. 

DR.  WOOLSEY  made  announcement,  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1870,  of  his  intention  to  resign  his 
office  at  the  next  following  Commencement. 
Abundant  time  was,  therefore,  given  for  the  considera- 
tion and  decision  of  the  matter  of  the  new  appointment 
that  was  to  be  made.  The  discussion  of  the  subject,  as  is 
always  the  fact  under  such  circumstances,  was  carried 
on  for  some  months,  both  in  the  Governing  Board  of 
the  College  and  outside  of  the  membership  of  that 
body.  Three  or  four  gentlemen  were  more  or  less 
earnestly  advocated  as  well  qualified  to  fill  the  posi- 
tion which  would  soon  be  vacated.  But,  after  a  time, 
the  Corporation  became  settled  in  their  conviction  that 
Professor  Noah  Porter  was  the  most  desirable  person 
for  the  place.  When  the  end  of  the  College  year  had 
nearly  arrived,  and  the  members  of  the  Board  were 
called  together  for  the  purpose  of  electing  a  new  Presi- 
dent, Dr.  Porter  received  the  appointment.  He  began 
the  discharge  of  the  Presidential  duties  at  the  opening 
of  the  autumn  term  of  1871,  but  the  inauguration  serv- 
ices were  not  held  until  the  i  ith  of  October. 

Dr.  Porter  was  just  approaching  his  sixtieth  birthday 
when  he  was  installed  in  his  new  position.  He  was  thus 
considerably  older  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  since 
1795,  when  they  entered  upon  their  work.  As  a  natural 
consequence,  the  period  of  his  Presidency  was  much 
shorter  than  theirs.  Dr.  Dwight,  at  his  accession  to  the 
office,  in  the  year  just  named,  was  only  forty-three  years 
of  age.  Dr.  Day,  when  he  assumed  its  responsibilities, 

342 


PRESIDENT   NOAH    PORTER 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

was  but  forty- four;  and  Dr.  Woolsey,  in  his  turn,  was 
forty-five. 

Dr.  Porter  was  different  in  his  mental  gifts  and  in  his 
characteristics  from  Dr.  Woolsey.  He  was,  however, 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  latter,  and  he  had  during  the 
entire  course  of  the  latter's  administration  co-operated 
with  him  as  a  college  officer,  and  had  stood  in  the  closest 
relations  to  him  as  an  instructor  of  the  Senior  class.  His 
executive  ability,  as  I  think,  did  not  equal  that  of  Dr. 
Woolsey,  whose  gifts  in  this  respect  were,  indeed,  quite 
remarkable.  On  account  of  this  fact,  he  did  not,  at  all 
times,  hold  himself  in  readiness,  as  completely  as  his 
predecessor  had  done,  to  assume  the  authority  of  a  gov- 
erning official.  He  was  accordingly  not  so  strong  as  a 
leader,  and  not  so  efficient  a  helper  in  matters  which  re- 
quired instant  energy  and  a  general's  activity.  There 
was,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  somewhat  less  of  the  fortiter 
in  re  element  in  his  manhood,  and  somewhat  more  of  the 
suaviter  in  modo  element.  The  mingling  of  these  ele- 
ments in  different  measures  may  have  been  the  cause  of 
this  distinction  between  the  two  men.  Dr.  Woolsey,  as 
we  may  say,  was  a  ruler  by  his  very  nature,  while  Dr. 
Porter  was  not. 

Dr.  Porter  had,  however,  some  of  the  characteristics 
which  eminently  qualify  a  man  to  guide  and  influence  a 
company  of  educated  youth,  such  as  we  find  assembled 
in  a  college.  Not  only  was  he  in  his  bearing  and  manner 
winsome  and  attractive  to  all,  but  he  possessed  in  an 
unusual  degree  that  peculiar  kind  of  intelligence  which 
belongs  to  New  England  and  which  appreciates  and  has 
a  readiness  to  adapt  itself  to  the  conditions  and  circum- 
stances of  life  as  they  present  themselves.  He  was  free 
from  the  fears  which  beset  and  disturb  many  college 
officers  in  their  governmental  or  disciplinary  dealings  with 
students.  Though  he  had  a  keen  insight  into  character, 
and  thus  was  gifted  with  the  power  of"  forming  accurate 

343 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

judgments  respecting  men,  whether  young  or  old,  his 
disposition  led  him  to  believe  in  the  possibilities  of  good 
that  were  open  for  all,  and  thus  to  treat  them  in  a  hope- 
ful way. 

The  two  men  were  unlike  each  other,  also,  in  what 
I  may  call  the  natural  outgoing  of  their  minds.  Dr. 
Woolsey  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  powers,  and  his 
intellectual  range  was  wide  and  large.  But  Dr.  Porter 
had  an  ever  fresh  enthusiasm,  and  constantly  forth- 
putting  interest,  as  related  to  all  subjects  of  elevated 
thought  .and  knowledge,  which  reminded  one  of  the 
eagerness  of  a  child  for  what  is  new  or  beautiful.  Dr. 
Porter  was  less  under  the  influence  of  the  earlier  religious 
education  of  the  century  and,  as  the  result  of  this  fact, 
he  had  a  happier  freedom  in  the  spiritual  sphere.  He 
had  in  his  nature  also  a  larger  measure  of  the  optimistic 
character,  which  has  confidence  that  results  will  prove 
better  than  the  present  circumstances  may  seem  to  indi- 
cate, and  will  prove  thus  even  if  we  do  not  ourselves 
intervene  to  direct  the  progress  of  events  towards  them. 
These  differences  and  others  which  might  be  mentioned 
were  such  as  may,  no  doubt,  have  tended  to  establish  and 
strengthen  the  friendship  that  existed  between  them. 
They  may  possibly  have  contributed,  in  their  influence 
upon  Dr.  Woolsey's  mind,  toward  the  feeling  which  he 
had  that  Dr.  Porter  was  the  man  who  possessed  peculiar 
fitness  to  be  his  successor  in  the  office  which  he  was  him- 
self about  to  lay  aside.  It  is  well  known  that  Dr.  Wool- 
sey heartily  favored  the  election  of  Dr.  Porter. 

The  fifteen  years  of  Dr.  Porter's  Presidency  were,  in 
many  respects,  prosperous  years.  The  forward  move- 
ment of  the  College  towards  the  larger  life  of  the  later 
period  was  more  conspicuous  during  his  official  term  than 
it  had  been  m  the  time  of  Dr.  Woolsey's  administration. 
Dr.  Woolsey  was  nearer  the  beginning,  in  this  regard, 
344 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

and  the  early  development  in  all  cases,  though  as  real, 
is  less  manifest  than  that  which  follows  afterwards. 

At  the  Commencement  season  which  was  the  dividing- 
point  between  the  two  Presidencies,  a  proposal  was  made 
and  adopted  with  much  enthusiasm,  to  undertake  the 
work  of  securing  a  large  fund  for  the  benefit  of  the  in- 
stitution as  a  whole,  which  should  be  commemorative  of 
President  Woolsey  and  should  bear  his  name.  The  work 
was  at  once  entered  upon  with  energy,  and  the  results 
were  at  the  outset  encouraging.  Notwithstanding  the 
period  of  financial  depression,  which  began  not  long 
afterwards  and  proved  more  continuous  and  serious  than 
had  been  at  first  anticipated,  a  sum  of  nearly  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  thousand  dollars  was  realized  from 
the  effort.  This  movement  and  the  success  which  at- 
tended it  seemed  to  awaken  new  interest  and  a  new  im- 
pulse in  the  minds  of  the  graduates  and  friends  of  the 
College.  At  the  same  time,  the  growing  wealth  of  the 
people  and  the  broadening  ideas  of  the  age  quickened 
the  spirit  of  generosity  throughout  the  country  in  a  man- 
ner and  measure  unknown  in  earlier  days.  When  the 
temporary  difficulties  and  fears  of  the  years  of  depres- 
sion had  passed  away,  the  era  of  greater  benefactions 
opened.  The  College,  accordingly,  began  to  realize 
what  had  been  almost  beyond  the  thought  of  the  most 
hopeful  of  those  who  were  nearest  the  center  of  its  life — 
the  possibility  of  an  enlargement  of  its  resources  which 
should,  in  some  true  meaning  of  the  words,  meet  the 
increasing  demands  of  the  future.  The  increase  in 
the  funds  of  all  the  departments  within  this  period  of 
fifteen  years  was  nearly  a  million  dollars.  The  first 
establishment  of  what  are  called  University  Funds,  as 
separate  and  distinct  from  those  of  the  several  depart- 
ments, was  rendered  possible  by  reason  of  this  increase. 
If  to  the  sum  mentioned  the  amounts  received  for  the 
erection  of  buildings  be  added — about  eight  hundred 

345 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

thousand  dollars — the  institution,  in  its  endowments  and 
its  means  of  providing  for  its  students,  may  be  said  to 
have  been  placed  in  quite  an  advanced  position. 

In  these  years  ten  new  buildings  were  erected — name- 
ly, the  Battell  Chapel,  Durfee  and  Lawrance  Halls,  and 
the  Sloane  Laboratory,  for  the  Academical  Department ; 
North  Sheffield  Hall,  for  the  Scientific  School;  West 
Divinity  Hall  and  the  Bacon  Memorial  Library,  for  the 
Theological  Department;  Dwight  Hall,  for  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  and  the  general  religious 
interests  of  the  institution;  the  Astronomical  Observa- 
tory, and  the  Peabody  Museum  of  Natural  History. 
These  buildings  were  a  most  important  and  valuable  ad- 
dition to  the  possessions  of  the  University,  and  the  ad- 
vantages resulting  from  them  have  been  very  highly 
appreciated. 

The  quadrangular  arrangement  of  buildings  on  the 
College  Square  was  planned,  and  a  beginning  was  made 
in  the  work  of  carrying  the  plan  into  effect,  as  has  been 
already  stated,  within  the  official  term  of  Dr.  Woolsey. 
As  a  consequence  of  locating  four  of  the  buildings  named 
above  in  accordance  with  the  proposed  arrangement,  the 
northern  half  of  the  quadrangle  was  made  complete,  be- 
fore Dr.  Porter's  retirement,  and  thus,  so  much  was  ac- 
complished that  the  prospect  of  the  final  realization  of 
what  was  desired  seemed  in  the  highest  degree  encour- 
aging. 

As  I  thus  refer  to  the  earlier  stages  of  this  great  work, 
I  may  without  impropriety,  I  trust,  express  my  regret,  as 
a  son  of  Yale  greatly  interested  in  its  architectural  fu- 
ture, that  the  first  of  these  buildings  of  the  northern  half 
of  the  quadrangle,  Farnam  Hall,  erected  in  1870,  and 
the  last,  Lawrance  Hall,  completed  in  the  summer  of 
1886,  were  built  of  brick.  That  the  new  edifices  should 
have  been  all  alike  of  stone  seems  to  me  beyond  the 
possibility  of  question.  If  the  buildings  on  the  original 
346 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

campus  had  all  been  stone  buildings,  and  the  use  of  brick 
had  been  reserved  for  certain  others  placed  elsewhere, 
I  am  sure  that  the  men  of  the  coming  time  would  have 
had  a  deeper  satisfaction. 

Comparatively  little  advance  was  made  in  the  move- 
ment towards  elective  studies  in  the  Academical  Depart- 
ment within  the  years  previous  to  1871,  when  Dr.  Wool- 
sey  retired.  The  first  five  years  after  that  date  also  wit- 
nessed few  changes  in  this  regard.  Both  Dr.  Porter  and 
his  predecessor,  though  they  had  openness  of  mind  with 
reference  to  all  true  learning,  were  believers  in  the  older 
system  of  required  studies,  and  were  strongly  attached 
to  it.  Hence  they  were  not  only  indisposed  to  favor  rad- 
ical innovations,  but  also  disinclined  to  go  forward  at  all 
in  this  matter,  unless  it  were  by  slow  and  well-considered 
steps.  There  were,  however,  two  occasions  in  the  period 
of  Dr.  Porter's  administration,  when  the  curriculum  was, 
in  this  regard,  to  a  considerable  extent  rearranged  and 
newly  adjusted.  One  of  these  occasions  was  in  1876, 
when  nearly  one-half  of  the  studies  of  the  last  two  years 
of  the  course  were  made  elective.  The  other  was  near 
the  close  of  his  term,  in  1884.  At  this  time  all  studies 
of  the  Senior  year,  except  those  pertaining  to  the  sphere 
of  Mental  Science,  were  opened  to  the  choice  of  each 
individual  student.  The  urgency  of  his  associates  in  the 
Faculty,  on  these  occasions,  overcame  his  hesitancy  or 
induced  him  to  yield  to  their  wishes. 

The  introduction  of  the  elective  system  in  the  degree 
thus  indicated  into  the  working  arrangements  of  this  de- 
partment, and  the  continuous  growth  in  the  number  of 
students  in  the  whole  institution  occasioned  a  demand 
for  a  larger  body  of  instructors.  Fortunately  the  in- 
crease in  the  resources  of  the  College  rendered  it  possible 
to  meet  this  demand  in  considerable  measure.  The  mem- 
bership of  the  Faculty  received  valuable  additions  in 

347 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

both  of  its  sections — that  of  permanent  and  that  of  tem- 
porary teachers. 

As  indicative  of  the  progress  and  growth  of  the  insti- 
tution during  these  years,  several  interesting  facts  addi- 
tional to  those  already  mentioned  may  be  briefly  noticed. 
The  number  of  students  increased  from  seven  hundred 
and  fifty-five,  in  1871,  to  one  thousand  and  seventy-six, 
in  1886.  This  increase  was  almost  wholly  in  the  de- 
partments outside  of  the  Academical,  the  growth  in  the 
membership  of  the  latter  department  being  only  forty- 
one.  Evidently  the  development  in  the  matter  of  num- 
bers was  towards  the  University,  rather  than  the  College 
— a  fact  of  interest,  and  suggestive  as  to  the  near  future. 
It  was  the  special  development  which  was  greatly  to  be 
desired  at  that  particular  critical  time.  With  reference 
to  the  Professional  Schools,  it  may  be  stated,  that  the 
School  of  Theology  came  to  the  more  full  realization  of 
the  results  of  long  preparatory  years  of  work;  that  of 
Law  was  brought  to  new  life  by  the  energy  of  its  new 
and,  at  that  time,  young  body  of  instructors;  that 
of  Medicine  was  greatly  advanced,  in  the  value  of  the 
education  which  it  offered,  through  the  adoption  of  a 
new  system  of  study  and  teaching.  The  School  of  the 
Fine  Arts,  at  the  same  time,  passed  through  its  earliest 
stages  with  success  and  made  itself  ready  for  its  larger 
and  more  useful  work.  Through  the  erection  of  the 
Peabody  Museum,  the  exceedingly  rich  and  valuable  pa- 
leontological  and  zoological  collections  made  by  Profes- 
sors Marsh  and  Verrill  were  opened  to  the  public  as  well 
as  to  the  students,  and  by  reason  of  the  gifts  of  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor  Winchester  and  the  Hillhouse  family,  the 
work  connected  with  the  Astronomical  Observatory  was 
made  possible.  The  Scientific  School  developed  largely 
and  most  satisfactorily  along  the  lines  which  had  been 
determined  by  its  officers  in  the  later  part  of  Dr.  Wool- 
sey's  administration.  The  Academical  Department  took 
348 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  itself  new  and  more  vigorous  life  as  the  years  moved 
onward.  The  young  men  in  the  several  Faculties,  who 
were  in  very  considerable  numbers,  gave  themselves  with 
much  energy  to  the  work  of  preparation  for  the  coming 
time,  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  immediate  present.  The 
older  men  were,  in  their  measure,  sympathetic  and  help- 
ful in  the  forward  movement.  All  looked  earnestly  to  a 
new  era,  and  hoped  for  its  coming. 

At  the  close  of  the  first  year  of  Dr.  Porter's  official 
term,  the  great  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  which  had  been  suggested  by  President 
Woolsey  and  rendered  possible  through  his  efforts  and 
the  efforts  of  others  who  co-operated  with  him,  was  con- 
summated in  the  election  of  six  members  of  the  body  by 
the  graduates.  These  members  took  the  places  of  the 
six  members  selected  from  the  State  Senate.  The  nat- 
ural result  of  this  change  was  the  awakening  of  what 
may  perhaps  be  called  a  more  organized  interest  in  the 
institution  on  the  part  of  its  alumni  than  had  been  known 
in  earlier  times.  Individual  attachment  to  the  College 
had  always  been  conspicuous.  But  now  the  graduates 
as  a  body  were  called  to  choose  their  own  representa- 
tives in  the  Governing  Board,  and  the  attention  of  all 
alike  was  thus  more  definitely  turned  to  the  subject  of 
the  College  growth  and  welfare.  It  was,  doubtless,  for- 
tunate for  the  new  President,  rather  than  otherwise,  that 
this  important  change  was  so  nearly  contemporaneous 
with  his  entrance  upon  the  duties  of  his  office.  Many 
questions  arose  afterwards  which  occasioned  much  dis- 
cussion and  even  divided  parties.  But  in  the  midst  of 
all  differences  this  select  body  of  graduates  at  the  center 
of  the  institution's  life  held  a  position  given  them  by 
their  fellow  alumni  and  shared  the  responsibility  of  all 
movements  of  whatever  character. 

Dr.  Porter,  like  Drs.  Woolsey  and  Day,  was  through- 
out his  Presidential  term,  a  teacher,  as  well  as  the  execu- 

349 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

tive  of  the  institution.  The  Presidency,  though  nomin- 
ally a  University  office,  was  in  reality  until  1886— so  far 
as  its  sphere  of  constant  service  was  concerned — more 
like  the  chief  position  in  the  Academical  Department 
with  certain  additional  duties  of  general  oversight  at- 
tached to  it.  The  relations  of  the  office  to  the  other 
departments  were  comparatively  indirect  and  informal. 
These  departments,  except  in  cases  of  special  importance 
and  when  the  attention  of  the  executive  was  particularly 
requested,  were  left  entirely  in  the  charge  of  their  own 
officials.  I  remember  that  I  once  addressed  a  brief  letter 
to  Dr.  Woolsey,  near  the  end  of  his  Presidential  term, 
in  which  I  expressed  to  him,  for  myself  and  on  behalf  of 
my  colleagues  of  the  Theological  Faculty,  my  thanks  for 
his  kindness  and  helpfulness  in  connection  with  our  work 
for  the  Divinity  School  and  its  upbuilding.  In  his  re- 
ply, after  some  gracious  words  in  acknowledgment  of 
my  letter,  he  said,  "With  respect  to  helpfulness,  I  do 
not  know  that  I  have  done  anything  for  the  Theological 
professors,  except  to  allow  them  to  raise  their  own  sal- 
aries." This  remark,  which  was  quite  characteristic  of 
the  man,  was  suggestive  of  the  condition  of  things  to 
which  I  allude. 

Under  such  circumstances,  it  was  altogether  practica- 
ble for  the  President  to  add  to  his  own  more  special  and 
appropriate  duties  those  which  pertain  to  a  professor's 
chair,  or  to  continue  in  the  work  of  the  professorship 
which  he  had  previously  held.  The  instruction  in  Men- 
tal and  Moral  Philosophy  was  under  Dr.  Porter's  sole 
charge  during  the  first  ten  years  of  his  Presidency.  In 
the  five  remaining  years,  he  had  the  aid  and  co-operation 
of  Dr.  Ladd,  who  was  called  to  a  professorship  in  this 
department  in  1881.  Still  later,  as  the  sphere  of  the 
studies  was  constantly  enlarging,  the  assistance  of  addi- 
tional instructors  was  secured;  but  this  was  after  he  had 
retired  from  the  executive  office  and  near  the  end  of  his 
350  • 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

life.  By  means  of  this  teaching  he  kept  himself  in  famil- 
iar relations  with  the  students  during  the  final  year  of 
their  academic  course,  in  a  measure  and  degree  scarcely 
possible  when  there  is  no  frequency  of  meeting  between 
a  college  officer  and  the  young  men  under  his  care  in  the 
recitation  or  lecture  room.  But  he  was,  of  course,  pre- 
vented by  it  from  giving  his  exclusive  attention  to  the 
work  of  his  higher  and  more  special  office.  The  alert- 
ness of  his  mind,  however,  and  the  wide  range  of  his 
intellectual  interests,  rendered  the  hindrances  thus  occa- 
sioned less  significant  than  might  otherwise  have  been 
the  case. 

As  I  look  backward  over  the  years  of  President  Por- 
ter's official  term,  and  bring  before  my  mind  the  results 
which  were  accomplished  within  them,  my  impression 
of  what  they  realized  for  the  College  is  deepened.  They 
were  certainly  years  of  marked  progress  in  the  growth 
of  the  institution.  On  his  retirement  from  his  executive 
office,  though  he  was  somewhat  older  than  Dr.  Woolsey 
and  Dr.  Day  were  at  the  time  when  they  resigned,  he 
did  not  sever  his  connection  with  the  College  or  with- 
draw from  the  work  of  instruction.  On  the  contrary, 
he  retained  his  professorship,  and  he  continued  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  pertaining  to  it  until  his  death,  which 
occurred  on  the  fourth  of  March,  1892.  With  all  his 
mental  activity,  which  moved  outward  in  many  lines, 
there  was  united  a  desire  and  fondness  for  communicat- 
ing his  thoughts  and  imparting  instruction  to  others.  He 
had  been  for  so  many  years  a  teacher,  that  he  felt  the 
continuance  of  his  work  with  his  classes  to  be  essential 
to  his  happiness.  Beyond  the  limits  of  his  lecture-room, 
however,  he  took  no  part  in  the  College  life.  The  priv- 
ilege of  withdrawing  from  all  ordinary  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities, other  than  those  connected  with  teaching, 
was  granted  him  by  the  Corporation,  at  his  request, 
when  he  resigned  the  Presidency.  He  was  thus  relieved 

35i 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

from  everything  that  might  have  proved  burdensome, 
while  the  work  which  was  especially  congenial  to  his 
feeling  was  left  in  his  charge. 

My  own  personal  associations  with  President  Porter 
were  most  friendly,  from  the  days  when  I  first  met  him 
in  the  membership  of  the  Faculty  to  the  close  of  his 
career.  He  was,  as  I  have  already  indicated,  united 
with  me  in  the  work  of  theological  instruction  for  sev- 
eral years,  beginning  with  the  time  when  I  was  called 
to  my  professorship  in  the  Divinity  School  and  continu- 
ing until  1866.  I  saw  much  of  him  during  that  period, 
and  on  important  occasions  sought  his  counsel  and  ad- 
vice. He  was  appreciative  of  the  thoughts  and  question- 
ings of  those  who  were  much  younger  than  himself.  I 
can  well  remember  the  help  and  encouragement  which 
he  gave  me  at  some  critical  moments  in  our  work  for  the 
rebuilding  of  the  School.  Had  it  not  been  for  his 
kindly  words  and  those  of  Professor  Thacher,  I  might 
not  have  pressed  forward  in  my  part  of  that  work  to 
its  completion. 

Professor  Thacher  was  a  source  of  strength  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  Dr.  Porter,  as  he  had  been  to  that  of 
President  Woolsey — and  not  only  in  its  relation  to  the 
students,  but  also  in  its  larger  and  more  widely  extended 
sphere  of  duty.  By  the  very  force  of  his  nature  and  the 
tendencies  of  his  mind,  he  was  almost  compelled  to  take 
a  leading  part  in  the  organization  and  direction  of  any 
work  or  enterprise  in  which  he  was  called  to  have  a 
share.  He  had  certain  powers  which  the  President  did 
not  possess  in  equal  measure,  and  for  this  reason  he  was 
helpful  to  him  in  carrying  out  efficiently  some  of  his 
wisest  plans.  His  influence  with  the  Faculty  and  the 
Corporation  equalled  or  even  surpassed  that  of  any  other 
College  officer.  This  influence  he  had  acquired,  in  large 
measure,  by  his  long-continued  and  highly  useful  service 
in  the  institution.  But  it  had  its  foundation  in  the  prac- 
352 


PROFESSOR   THOMAS   A.    THACHER 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

tical  wisdom  and  forceful  character  of  the  man.  For  a 
number  of  years  between  1874  and  1884,  the  work  of 
securing  much-needed  additions  to  the  resources  of  the 
College  was  in  large  measure  assigned  to  him.  This 
work  he  carried  forward  with  great  energy  and  marked 
success;  but  by  reason  of  the  demands  which  it  made 
upon  him,  and  of  the  serious  impairment  of  his  health  at 
this  time,  he  was  obliged  to  lay  aside  mainly  or  wholly 
the  duties  connected  with  his  office  of  instruction.  The 
service  which  he  rendered  in  this  special  line  of  effort 
was  of  so  much  value  that  the  Corporation  presented  to 
him  their  most  grateful  acknowledgment  of  his  gen- 
erous devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  institution.  He 
.  lived  until  within  three  months  of  the  close  of  the  ad- 
ministration. He  was  thus  a  power  in  connection  with 
it  throughout  its  course. 

Professor  Thacher,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  had  al- 
ready entered  upon  his  seventy-second  year.  His  very 
intimate  and  highly  valued  associate  in  the  department 
of  the  Ancient  Classics,  Professor  Hadley,  when  he 
died,  was  not  yet  fifty-two.  The  twenty  years  which 
were  given  to  the  one,  and  denied  to  the  other,  separated 
the  two  men  in  the  measure  of  the  opportunities  that 
life  offered.  But  each  filled  out  to  its  fullness  the  meas- 
ure that  was  granted  him,  through  faithful  service  and 
with  rich  results. 

Every  son  of  Yale,  as  he  heard  of  the  ending  of  Pro- 
fessor Hadley's  career,  wished  most  sincerely  that  the 
score  of  years  might  have  been  added  for  him  also,  yet 
with  this  wish  was  united  the  feeling  of  deepest  gratitude 
that  his  work  in  the  College  had  extended  over  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  and  that  so  many  classes  had  enjoyed  the 
happy  fortune  of  being  under  his  influence.  The  sadness 
which  came  to  all  with  the  tidings  of  his  death  was  that 
which  accompanied  the  thought  of  what  the  future,  had 
life  continued,  might  have  realized.  He  had,  as  it 

353 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

seemed  to  us,  just  reached  the  beginning  of  the  harvest 
time — the  time  when  the  fruits  of  his  varied  learning  and 
his  intellectual  resources  of  every  sort  would  be  given 
abundantly  to  the  world,  and  when  he  might  by  his 
writings  become  for  scholars  everywhere  what  he  had 
already  been  for  his  pupils  through  his  teaching,  a  highly 
•  esteemed  helper  and  guide. 

Within  the  period  of  his  professorship  Professor 
Hadley  pressed  forward  his  studies  in  many  lines.  While 
he  devoted  himself  with  the  most  conscientious  fidelity 
to  the  special  department  of  learning  in  which  he  was 
called  to  give  instruction  and  became,  as  a  consequence, 
the  equal  of  any  Greek  scholar  in  the  country,  his  active 
mind  was  constantly  putting  forth  its  energies  in  new 
spheres,  and  to  the  end  of  yet  larger  attainments.  His 
knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  language  was  such  that  earn- 
est and  intelligent  friends  of  the  College,  after  the  death 
of  Professor  Gibbs  in  1861,  urged  his  appointment  to 
the  chair  of  Hebrew  in  the  Divinity  School.  At  a  little 
later  time  he  was  most  favorably  thought  of  in  connec- 
tion with  the  professorship  of  History,  then  recently 
established  in  the  Academical  Department.  The  Law 
professors  were  glad  to  secure  his  services  as  a  lecturer 
on  the  subject  of  Roman  Law.  The  acquisitions  which 
he  had  made,  not  only  in  Hebrew,  but  also  in  Sanscrit, 
were  evidenced  by  his  membership  in  the  American 
Oriental  Society,  and  by  the  fact  of  his  election  to  the 
presidency  of  that  organization.  By  reason  of  his  high 
standing  as  a  Biblical  scholar,  he  was  chosen  as  one  of 
the  members  of  the  New  Testament  section  of  the  com- 
mittee who  were  asked  to  prepare  the  Revised  English 
Version  of  the  Bible.  He  was  among  the  earlier  lead- 
ers in  the  development  of  the  science  of  Comparative 
Philology  during  the  latter  half  of  the  century  which  has 
just  closed.  The  knowledge  which  he  possessed  of  the 
languages  of  modern  Europe,  including  German, 
354 


PROFESSOR    JAMES    HADLEY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

French,  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Swedish,  was  thorough 
and  accurate,  while  his  acquaintance  with  his  own  lan- 
guage, both  in  its  literature  and  in  the  matter  of  its 
sources  and  early  forms,  rendered  him  worthy  of  a  place 
among  English  scholars.  He  had  such  gifts  and  acquisi- 
tions as  related  to  mathematical  science  that,  if  he  had 
made  the  study  of  it  his  life-work,  he  would  undoubtedly 
have  attained  eminence.  There  was,  indeed,  no  one  in 
the  whole  company  of  Yale  teachers,  in  those  days,  who 
equalled  him  in  the  range  of  his  learning,  or  in  the  ease 
with  which  his  mind  worked  in  accordance  with  the  out- 
going of  its  impulses. 

For  a  man  like  him,  however — so  eager,  yet  so  patient 
in  his  studies ;  so  thorough  and  conscientious  in  his  daily 
work;  so  high  in  his  ideals,  and  so  hopeful  that  he 
might  reach  them  if  he  moved  still  farther  onward  and 
upward — the  years  beyond  fifty  are  the  years  of  author- 
ship. They  are  the  years  which,  in  a  peculiar  sense, 
form  for  such  a  man  the  fruitage  season.  If  they  could 
have  been  granted  him,  we  may  believe  that  the  results 
would  have  greatly  enriched  American  scholarship,  while 
they  would  also  have  given  additional  honor  to  his  name. 
The  place  which  he  held  among  the  scholarly  men  of 
his  time  will  be  fully  recognized  by  all  who  acquaint 
themselves  with  the  past  history. 

Professors  Thacher  and  Hadley,  as  intimated  on  ear- 
lier pages  of  this  volume,  differed  from  each  other  in 
many  points,  but  through  their  personal  influence,  as 
well  as  their  teaching,  they  contributed  largely,  and  we 
may  perhaps  say  in  equal  measure,  to  the  development 
of  the  true  life  of  the  academic  community.  The  power 
of  Mr.  Hadley  as  related  to  his  students  was  more  strik- 
ingly and  predominantly  manifested  on  the  intellectual 
side.  He  appeared  before  them  as  a  genuine  and  almost 
ideal  scholar,  and  his  every  presentation  of  himself  had 
a  certain  stimulative  force  for  the  awakening  of  their 

355 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

mental  energies  and  the  exciting  of  their  best  desires  for 
knowledge  and  culture.  Mr.  Thacher's  influence,  on 
the  other  hand,  came  more  evidently  from  the  active 
working  of  his  entire  manhood.  There  was  in  his  nature 
a  forth-putting  tendency  which  impelled  him,  at  all 
times,  to  move  outward,  and  to  use  every  gift  of  mind 
or  character  in  positive  effort  for  those  who  were  under 
his  educating  care.  The  two  men  left  the  impress  of 
thought  and  inward  life  upon  their  pupils.  But  in  the 
one  case  it  was  the  result  more  exclusively  of  the  per- 
sonality in  itself,  while  in  the  other  it  was  due  also  to 
the  outgoing  of  the  personality  in  action.  We  all,  who 
knew  them,  gladly  remember  their  long  and  happy  union 
in  the  service  of  the  College,  as  we  see  within  ourselves 
the  helpful  influence  of  their  lives  and  of  their  work. 

Professor  Hadley  lived  only  a  single  year  after  Dr. 
Porter's  accession  to  the  Presidency.  Twelve  years 
afterwards,  his  younger  associate  and  successor  in  the 
Greek  Department,  Professor  Packard,  of  whom  I  have 
elsewhere  written  briefly,  reached  the  end  of  his  career. 
The  College  thus  lost,  within  the  period  of  this  adminis- 
tration, two  prominent  Greek  scholars  who,  by  reason 
of  their  ability  and  learning,  had  acquired  for  themselves 
most  honorable  fame.  The  loss  was  the  occasion  of 
very  sincere  regret  and  grief  on  the  part  of  the  entire 
company  of  instructors  who  had  been  intimately  con- 
nected with  them  in  their  work  and  life.  It  was  fully 
appreciated  also  by  other  collegiate  institutions,  and  by 
all  educated  men  who  felt  a  deep  interest  in  the  progress 
of  classical  education  in  the  country. 

Two  professors  of  prominence  in  connection  with 
the  Scientific  School — one  of  them  in  its  early  beginnings, 
and  the  other  during  many  years  of  its  history — whose 
life-work  came  to  its  close  not  long  before  Dr.  Porter's 
retirement  from  his  office,  will  be  remembered  by  the 
356 


PROFESSOR  LEWIS  R.  PACKARD 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

older  graduates.  These  two  gentlemen  were  Professor 
Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.,  and  Professor  William  A.  Nor- 
ton. The  former  died  in  1885,  and  the  latter  in  1883. 
Professor  Norton  was  not  a  son  of  Yale  by  reason  of 
his  early  education,  but  through  his  long-continued  serv- 
ice in  our  board  of  instruction  he  became,  in  the  most 
complete  sense,  one  of  our  fraternity,  even  as  if  he  had 
known  no  other  home  from  the  beginning.  He  was 
possessed  of  the  true  Yale  spirit,  and  was  recognized  by 
all  as  in  heart  and  soul  a  Yale  man.  In  his  student  years 
he  entered  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point.  Soon 
after  finishing  his  course  there  he  was  called  to  an  office 
of  instruction  in  that  institution,  which  he  accepted  and 
filled  with  credit  to  himself  for  two  years.  At  the  end 
of  this  period  he  received  an  invitation  to  a  professor- 
ship in  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Here 
he  continued  for  five  years,  and  then  for  eleven  years  he 
had  connection  with  Delaware  College,  as  one  of  its 
professors,  or  its  President.  Subsequently  the  trustees 
of  Brown  University  secured  his  services  as  a  member  of 
its  Faculty.  The  term  of  his  service  in  this  institution 
was  quite  brief,  but  it  was  long  enough  to  secure  for  him 
very  high  esteem  and  warm  affection  from  his  pupils,  a 
considerable  company  of  whom  followed  him  to  New 
Haven  when  he  entered  upon  his  work  at  Yale. 

He  came  to  us  when  he  was  forty-two  years  of  age, 
and  after  an  experience  of  twenty-one  years  as  a  teacher. 
Immediately  upon  his  entrance  into  his  ,new  sphere  of 
duty,  his  ability,  thoroughness,  enthusiasm,  and  excel- 
lence as  an  instructor  commended  him  to  his  pupils, 
while  these  same  gifts  and  others  equally  conspicuous 
gave  his  colleagues  in  the  Faculty  the  assurance  that  his 
presence  among  them  would  be  of  continual  benefit  to 
the  School.  For  thirty-one  years — the  life-time  of  a 
generation — he  discharged  the  duties  attendant  upon  his 
position,  ever  devoting  himself  alike  to  the  interests  of 

357 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

his  department  of  science  and  to  the  well-being  of  those 
who  came  to  him  for  instruction.  Those  years  were,  all 
of  them,  rich  in  scholarly  endeavor  and  attainment. 
They  were  also  marked  by  the  growth  of  most  genuine 
character  in  himself,  as  well  as  by  most  helpful  influence 
for  others,  young  and  old. 

With  reference  to  Professor  Norton's  relations  to  his 
students,  Professor  Du  Bois  said  of  him  soon  after  his 
death:  "As  with  the  best  teachers,  the  advantages  un- 
consciously imbibed  by  his  pupils  from  personal  contact ; 
the  unconscious  influence  of  high  ideals;  of  love  of  truth 
and  honor;  of  personal  integrity,  of  scrupulous  exact- 
ness;— these  were  lessons  daily  enforced  and  more  val- 
uable than  any  of  those  he  so  well  knew  how  to  extract 
from  the  text-book,  or  illustrate  on  the  black-board.  His 
patience  and  courtesy  were  unfailing.  No  student,  how- 
ever trying  or  dull,  ever  heard  from  him  an  impatient  or 
sarcastic  word.  With  perfect  gentleness,  a  thoroughness 
which  spared  no  pains,  and  a  clearness  of  exposition 
which,  in  the  writer's  experience,  is  very  rare,  he  took 
every  student  with  him  in  the  prescribed  course,  and 
sent  him  away  at  graduation  not  only  a  wiser  but  a  bet- 
ter man,  and  a  personal  and  enthusiastic  friend."  Pro- 
fessor Du  Bois  adds,  "A  teacher's  best  testimonial  is  the 
esteem  and  respect  of  his  pupils;  his  best  reward  their 
love  and  confidence." 

These  most  fitting  words  were  written  by  one  who  had 
familiar  relations  with  Professor  Norton,  both  as  a  pupil 
and  in  the  membership  of  the  Faculty.  I  give  myself 
the  privilege  of  quoting  them,  not  only  as  descriptive  of 
the  man,  but  as  suggestive  also  in  their  wider  applica- 
tion. The  professor  was  characterized  in  his  teachings, 
his  colleague  says,  by  a  thoroughness  which  spared  no 
pains  and  a  rare  clearness  of  exposition — and  so  his 
pupils  became  wiser  men,  because  of  their  meeting  him 
in  their  undergraduate  years.  But  he  had  also, 'it  is 
358 


PROFESSOR    WILLIAM    A.    NORTON 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

added,  an  unfailing  courtesy  and  gentleness.  This  it 
was  that  made  them  his  enthusiastic  friends.  Not  court- 
esy only,  but  unfailing  courtesy.  How  different  the 
one  is  from  the  other.  How  much  less  frequently 
we  see  the  latter  than  the  former  in  the  relations  be- 
tween teachers  and  their  pupils,  or  even  between  gen- 
tlemen and  their  associates.  What  an  emphasis  the  word 
unfailing  carries  in  itself,  rendering  the  virtue  almost  a 
new  and  loftier  one,  and  giving  in  the  sphere  of  friend- 
ship a  creative  and  inspiring  force.  The  college  in- 
structor who  has  this  gift — of  courtesy  that  never  fails 
— as  the  outflow  of  the  soul's  life  within  him,  is  sure  of 
the  loving  remembrance  of  his  students,  and  thus  of  his 
best  reward.  But  the  source  of  the  outflow,  we  may  well 
remember,  is  ever  to  be  found  in  "the  patience  and  gen- 
tleness" of  the  inner  life. 

Professor  Norton  was,  as  I  think,  one  of  the  class  of 
college  teachers  to  whose  minds  the  duty  of  instruction 
which  they  owe  to  their  pupils  appears  to  be  the  first  and 
highest  of  all  obligations  resting  upon  them.  Such  men, 
and  this  was  true  in  his  case,  make  research  subordinate 
to  this  duty,  and  engage  in  it,  primarily,  that  they  may 
give  the  results  to  their  classes.  As  a  consequence, 
though  they  may  be  scholars  of  a  superior  order,  they 
do  not  publish  as  much  in  the  form  of  treatises  or  vol- 
umes, as  do  those  for  whom  their  personal  investigations 
and  acquirements  are  the  matter  of  chief  importance. 
Everything,  however,  which  Professor  Norton  gave  to 
the  public  bore  the  marks  of  much  ability  and  learning, 
and  was  received  with  great  respect  by  those  who  were 
devoted  to  his  department  of  science.  It  was  fortunate 
for  our  University  that  he  came  to  it  at  so  early  a  time 
in  the  history  of  the  new  School,  which  was  destined  to 
accomplish  a  work  far  beyond  the  largest  expectations 
of  its  friends  at  the  beginning.  It  was  fortunate,  also, 
that  his  years  of  work  within  it,  and  on  behalf  of  its 
359 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

students,  were  prolonged  until  he  had  reached  the  age 
of  seventy-three. 

Professor  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr. — the  younger  Silli- 
man,  as  he  was  often  called,  in  distinction  from  his 
father — was  a  member  of  the  Yale  Class  of  1837.  The 
inheritance  of  scientific  aptitudes  and  tastes  came  to  him 
in  such  full  measure  that  as  soon  as,  by  reason  of  his 
age,  the  opportunity  for  the  choice  of  the  work  for  his 
mature  life  presented  itself,  he  had  only  to  make  his 
decision  in  accordance  with  the  impulses  of  his  nature. 
We  may  not  doubt  that  his  daily  observation  of  his 
father's  enthusiasm  also,  and  of  the  success  and  satis- 
faction which  were  so  conspicuous  in  his  working,  ren- 
dered him  yet  more  earnest  in  the  desire  to  follow  in  the 
same  pathway.  Accordingly,  he  began  his  professional 
career  almost  immediately  after  his  graduation,  becom- 
ing an  assistant  in  the  Laboratory  of  the  period,  and 
thus  giving  himself  the  best  advantages  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  his  studies  and  investigations.  At  the  date  of 
my  entrance  upon  the  College  course  he  had  already 
undertaken  the  work  of  instruction,  if  not  in  the  way  of 
aiding  his  father  to  some  extent  in  his  regular  exercises 
with  his  pupils,  yet  at  least  as  a  teacher  of  special  stu- 
dents who  resorted  to  New  Haven  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  knowledge  in  his  department  of  science.  We 
may  believe  that  the  presence  of  these  students  quickened 
and  strengthened  in  his  mind,  and  in  his  father's  also, 
the  desire — which  their  favorite  studies  and  the  opening 
possibilities  that  seemed  to  await  them  in  the  early  future, 
had  already  awakened — to  establish  a  new  school  within 
the  College  sphere,  in  which  Natural  and  Physical 
Science  should  have  the  pre-eminent  place.  However  this 
may  be,  it  is  a  fact  of  our  College  history,  that  in  1846, 
in  co-operation  with  Mr.  John  P.  Norton,  who  had  re- 
cently been  one  of  his  studentSj  he  took  a  most  active 
360 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

part  in  pressing  the  matter  of  founding  the  school,  upon 
the  attention  of  the  President  and  Fellows,  and  that  a 
year  later,  when  decisive  action  was  taken  by  the  author- 
ities, the  two  gentlemen  assumed  the  responsibility  of  its 
organization  and  of  the  work  of  instruction  which  was 
to  be  carried  forward  in  it.  They  certainly  deserve  to 
be  held  in  most  kindly  remembrance,  as  well  as  in  honor, 
for  this  great  service  which  they  thus  rendered,  in  their 
early  manhood,  both  to  science  and  to  Yale. 

As  indicative  of  the  limitations  of  the  period  in  re- 
spect to  the  financial  resources  of  the  College,  and  of  the 
caution  which,  as  a  consequence,  was  wont  to  be  exhib- 
ited by  the  central  authorities,  a  fact  of  interest  as  re- 
lated to  this  matter  may  be  mentioned.  The  withdrawal 
of  President  Day  from  his  office,  which  was  contempora- 
neous with  the  action  establishing  the  school,  left  the 
Presidential  house  then  standing  on  the  College  Square 
vacant;  and,  as  Dr.  Woolsey  did  not  wish  to  occupy  it, 
it  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Corporation.  That 
body  appointed  the  two  young  men  to  professorships 
which,  so  far  as  salary  was  concerned,  were  almost  en- 
tirely dependent  on  the  fees  that  should  be  received  from 
the  small  number  of  students  who  might  be  expected  to 
take  their  instruction;  and  then — no  doubt,  at  their  re- 
quest— assigned  this  house  to  the  new  School  for  its  uses. 
It  was  regarded  as  impracticable,  however,  to  grant  the 
professors  the  occupancy  of  it  free  of  rent,  or  to  make 
provision  for  the  expense  of  fitting  and  furnishing  it  as 
a  laboratory.  The  burden  of  meeting  all  such  expenses 
was  laid  upon  the  professors,  as  if  the  entire  work  had 
been  personal  to  themselves.  The  governing  authorities 
of  that  era  were  certainly  gifted  with  the  virtue — so 
often  claimed  and  commended  by  political  leaders — of 
making  "an  economical  use  of  the  public  money."  But 
it  was  a  virtue  which  the  limitations  of  the  period  ren- 
dered not  only  more  essential  to  the  continuance  of  the 
361 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

life  of  the  institution,  but  more  easy  of  attainment,  than 
it  sometimes  is  in  these  later  and  more  prosperous  days. 
The  old  Corporation  must  have  had  daily  lessons  respect- 
ing this  virtue  which  made  a  deep  impression  on  their  minds. 

Mr.  Silliman's  work  in  the  Scientific  School  was,  I 
think,  less  in  its  measure  than  that  of  Professor  John  P. 
Norton,  even  from  the  first;  certainly  it  was  so  after 
the  year  1849,  when  he  was  elected  to  a  professorship 
in  the  Medical  College  at  Louisville,  Kentucky.  From 
that  time  until  1854,  though  he  still  retained  his  con- 
nection with  Yale,  his  official  position  in  the  other  insti- 
tution rendered  his  presence  with  us,  except  for  brief 
periods,  quite  impracticable.  In  those  early  years  the 
daily  duties  in  connection  with  teaching  the  young  men 
who  were  students,  rested  mainly  upon  Mr.  Norton,  and 
he  was  the  inspiring  force  which  impelled  them  to  their 
efforts  and  investigations.  Mr.  Norton  had  only  a  very 
brief  career.  He  died  in  1852,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one; 
but  those  who  knew  his  work  and  what  he  accomplished 
are  united  in  the  feeling  that  he  was  the  one  who  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  greater  life  and  the  very  remarka- 
ble success  which  the  school  has  had  in  the  half-century 
that  has  followed  his  time. 

In  the  summer  of  1852,  just  before  Professor  Nor- 
ton's death  and  while  Mr.  Silliman's  work  in  Louisville 
was  not  yet  ended,  Professors  John  A.  Porter  and  Wil- 
liam A.  Norton  were  appointed  to  official  positions  in 
the  school,  and,  as  a  consequence,  they  took  charge 
of  its  instruction  and  general  management  during  the 
period  of  the  next  four  years,  until  the  membership  of 
the  Faculty  was  enlarged  by  the  election  of  Professors 
Brush  and  Johnson  to  the  chairs  of  Metallurgy,  and 
Analytical  and  Agricultural  Chemistry.  Mr.  Silliman 
thus  filled  a  place  rather  in  the  sphere  of  sympathy  or 
friendly  aid,  than  in  that  of  constant  service.  Indeed, 
from  the  year  1854,  when  he  withdrew  from  his  office  in 
362 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Louisville,  he  devoted  his  energies  to  the  work  of  in- 
struction in  the  Academical  and  Medical  Departments. 
The  Professorship  which  the  father  had  filled  for  half  a 
century  was  thus  passed  to  the  son.  He  continued  to 
hold  this  chair,  so  far  as  it  had  relation  to  the  undergrad- 
uate college,  until  1870;  and  in  its  connection  with  the 
Medical  School  until  the  end  of  his  life.  He  was,  there- 
fore, in  the  membership  of  the  professorial  board  for 
thirty-nine  years. 

Of  Professor  Silliman's  attainments  in  science  and  the 
results  of  his  work  in  his  chosen  field  of  study,  I  can 
hardly  regard  myself  as  competent  to  express  an  opinion. 
That  he  was  a  man  of  very  active  mind,  and  of  promi- 
nent ability  and  much  learning,  is  evidenced  by  his  scien- 
tific publications;  by  his  articles  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Science,  and  the  editorial  care  of  that  periodical  which 
he  shared  with  his  father  for  some  years,  and  for  more 
than  a  generation  with  his  brother-in-law,  Professor 
James  D.  Dana;  and  also  by  his  special  work  in  the 
sphere  of  applied  science. 

He  was  a  graduate  of  ten  or  eleven  years'  standing 
when  my  classmates  first  came  to  know  him.  With  the 
freedom  in  which  undergraduates  indulge  themeselves, 
we  were  wont  to  speak  of  him  as  "  Young  Ben."  But 
college  names  and  titles,  as  given  to  men  by  their  pupils, 
are,  at  the  most,  only  half-way  disrespectful.  Indeed, 
they  are,  oftentimes,  simply  affectionate — representing 
the  kindly  feeling  of  those  who  give  them.  The  man, 
whether  young  or  old,  who  is  aggrieved  or  distressed  by 
the  discovery  that  he  has  what  we  call  a  nickname  in  the 
academic  community,  may  well  be  recommended  to  trans- 
fer himself  to  some  other  sphere  of  life.  His  condition 
in  a  college  will  certainly  be  hopeless,  in  this  regard. 
But  I  doubt  whether  Professor  Silliman  was  ever  dis- 
turbed in  mind  because  he  was  thus  distinguished  from 
his  more  venerable  father  who,  as  I  have  already  stated, 

363 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

was  generally  called  by  us  "  Uncle  Ben."  The  elder  and 
the  younger  were,  both  of  them,  too  youthful  in  senti- 
ment and  genial  in  character  to  misunderstand  the  feel- 
ing of  their  pupils.  And  after  all,  "young"  is  not  a 
title  to  be  rejected;  while,  as  for  "uncle,"  I  remember 
a  man  of  the  by-gone  years,  whom  I  was  privileged  to 
call  by  this  name,  every  thought  of  whose  life  and  love 
fills  my  soul  with  pleasure  even  to  this  day. 

Professor  Silliman,  the  younger,  of  whom  I  am  here 
writing,  had  much  of  his  father's  geniality.  He  was 
kindly  to  all.  The  hospitality  of  his  house  was  appre- 
ciated by  every  one  who  knew  him.  The  winsomeness 
of  his  manners  rendered  him  attractive.  His  readiness 
for  conversation  fitted  him  for  social  intercourse  and 
made  his  companionship  pleasant  to  his  friends.  The 
knowledge  and  information  which  he  had  gained  in  dif- 
ferent lines,  through  his  studies  and  his  travels,  he  was 
ever  willing  to  communicate  to  others  and  he  was  thus 
disposed  to  be  helpful  to  them.  In  his  temperament  he 
was  cheerful  and  sanguine.  A  certain  roseate  view  of 
life  seemed  to  place  him  apart  in  his  thoughts  and  hopes 
from  many  around  him  who  had,  in  their  own  opinion 
at  least,  a  more  just  and  sound  estimate  of  things.  There 
was  something  inspiring  for  him,  no  doubt,  in  this  mental 
attitude,  but  it  was  attended  at  times  by  a  possibility  of 
disappointment.  His  courage  and  ardor,  however,  were 
unfailing,  and  he  moved  forward  under  their  influence 
toward  the  end  which  he  had  in  view. 

One  of  the  very  interesting  men  of  the  University  be- 
longing to  the  period  of  which  I  am  now  writing — a  man 
whose  service  within  its  walls  began  and  ended  while 
Dr.  Porter  was  in  the  Presidency — was  Professor  S. 
Wells  Williams.  After  a  long  and  eminent  career  in 
China,  he  was  called,  in  1877,  to  the  Professorship  of 
the  Chinese  Language  and  Literature  in  our  University. 

364 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

He  accepted  the  invitation,  and  discharged  the  duties  of 
the  office  until  his  death,  in  1884. 

Dr.  Williams  went  to  China,  when  he  was  a  young  man 
of  only  twenty-one  years,  and  in  response  to  a  proposal 
that  he  should  take  charge  of  the  missionary  printing 
press  which  had  just  been  established  at  Canton.  He 
devoted  himself  assiduously  to  the  acquisition  of  the  lan- 
guage and  speedily  became  adequate  to  the  duties  to 
which  he  was  called.  In  connection  with  his  work  he 
edited  and  published  a  monthly  journal,  the  purpose  of 
which  was  to  make  known  to  the  people  of  Europe  and 
the  United  States  the  life  of  the  Chinese  Empire — its 
government,  literature,  religion,  etc. — with  a  view  to 
the  Christianizing  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  part  of  the 
world.  After  residing  in  China  for  four  or  five  years, 
he  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  Japa- 
nese, and  became  so  far  familiar  with  it  that  he  was 
able  to  act  as  the  interpreter  for  Commodore  Perry  and 
those  who  accompanied  him  on  the  expedition  to  their 
country  in  1853.  Not  long  after  this,  he  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  American  Legation  at  Peking,  where  in 
1858  he  rendered  valuable  assistance  in  negotiating  the 
important  treaty  made  at  that  time  between  China  and 
our  country.  His  entire  residence  among  the  Chinese 
covered  a  period  of  nearly  forty  years.  During  this 
period  he  made  himself  one  of  the  most  eminent  scholars 
in  his  sphere  of  studies.  He  was  respected  everywhere 
for  his  ability,  his  attainments,  and  his  truly  unselfish 
and  Christian  labors. 

His  final  return  to  America,  in  1876,  closed  his  long 
career  of  useful  and  honorable  service  in  the  Eastern 
world,  but  a  new  sphere  was  happily  opened  for  him  in 
the  home  land.  When  he  came  to  Yale  in  answer  to  the 
call  of  the  Corporation,  he  had  reached  the  age  of  sixty- 
five.  He  was  thus  in  the  full  ripeness  of  his  learning 
and  his  manhood.  Seven  years  he  lived  in  our  Academic 

365 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

circle,  impressing  all  his  associates  within  its  limits  as  a 
man  of  the  highest  ideals  and  of  the  most  undoubting 
Christian  faith.  Abounding  in  knowledge  and  rejoicing 
in  the  possession  of  it  for  himself,  he  held  himself  ever 
in  readiness  to  impart  it  to  others.  His  large  attain- 
ments which  were  of  an  uncommon  order,  together  with 
the  suggestiveness  of  his  thoughts  connected  with  them, 
rendered  his  teaching  and  his  conversation  as  attractive 
as  it  was  helpful.  The  hope  of  the  coming  time  was 
very  strong  in  his  soul.  He  had  a  bright  vision  of  the  fu- 
ture of  the  people  among  whom  his  life  had  been  so 
largely  spent,  and  was  wont  to  prophesy  that  his  younger 
contemporaries  would  witness  great  and  happy  results  for 
China  before  the  ending  of  their  life-time.  What  would 
have  been  his  feeling,  if  he  had  survived  until  now,  and 
had  known  of  the  movements  and  events  of  the  recent 
years,  we  may  not  say.  But  that  he  would  have  been 
most  deeply  interested,  and  that  his  confidence  in  the 
overruling  Divine  power  would  have  continued  undi- 
minished,  no  one  who  knew  him  can  for  a  moment  ques- 
tion. His  outlook  toward  the  hereafter  beyond  our 
present  life  was  peaceful  and  delightful.  Not  only  were 
there  no  doubts  nor  fears  in  his  mind,  but  there  was  ever 
abiding  within  him  the  assurance  of  hope — the  hope 
that  was  truly  an  anchor  to  the  soul.  Two  years  before 
his  death,  he  said  to  a  friend  that  he  sometimes  had  an 
almost  irrepressible  desire  to  move  on  into  the  coming 
scenes — a  feeling  that  he  could  not  wait  for  the  months 
or  years  to  bring  the  happiness  within  his  experience. 
It  was  a  benediction  to  us  all  to  have  him  with  us  in  his 
advancing  age,  and  to  see  him  pass  out  from  among  us 
so  calmly  and  so  joyfully  at  the  end. 

The  presence  in  the  University  of  men  like  Dr.  Will- 
iams, who  are  scholars  in  regions  quite  outside  of  the 
ordinary  curriculum  of  study  and  who,   if  they  give 
instruction  at  all,  must  give  it  to  but  few,  is  a  gain  and 
366 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

blessing  to  the  university  life.  Such  men  may  not,  and 
indeed  cannot,  do  the  ordinary  work  of  the  institution. 
But  they  are  representatives  of  learning;  and  the  more 
truly  the  University  is  the  home  of  scholars,  the  more 
completely  is  it  worthy  of  its  name.  There  is  an  edu- 
cating power  in  an  institution  like  ours  additional  to 
that  of  the  lecture-room — a  power  in  the  atmosphere  of 
its  scholarly  life. 

During  the  last  few  years  of  President  Porter's  con- 
tinuance in  the  executive  office,  there  was  much  discussion 
of  questions  relating  to  the  general  policy  of  the  College. 
Some  of  these  questions  had  reference  to  matters  of  very 
considerable  importance.  The  discussion  was  carried 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  academic  fraternity  and, 
through  the  press,  to  the  knowledge  and  attention  of 
the  general  public.  As  a  consequence  of  it,  there  arose 
unfortunate  divisions  between  the  graduates  of  the  more 
progressive  and  those  of  the  more  conservative  order, 
which  threatened  injury  to  the  well-being  of  the  institu- 
tion. It  was — perhaps  we  may  say — a  time  when  the 
future  and  the  past  met  together,  and  could  not  thus 
meet  without  awakening  more  or  less  of  conflict.  This 
discussion  and  division  were  most  noticeable  in  the  period 
between  1883  and  1885.  The  classes  entering  the  Col- 
lege department  in  this  period  were  somewhat  smaller 
than  the  average  of  previous  years.  This  diminution 
of  numbers  may  have  been  due,  in  some  degree,  to  the 
controversies.  Many  had  the  opinion  that  they  were  the 
sole  cause  of  it.  But  it  is  more  probable  that  the  main 
occasion  of  the  fact  was  altogether  outside  of  the 
academic  sphere,  in  certain  temporary  financial  limita- 
tions and  other  unfavorable  conditions  of  the  country 
during  those  years.  The  fact  itself,  however,  tended  in 
its  influence  to  accentuate  the  controversies. 

By  a  happy  favoring  of  fortune,  the  divisions  ceased 
367 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

when  the  new  administration  began,  and  a  unanimity  of 
sentiment  among  the  entire  company  of  graduates  was 
again  realized.  It  was  as  happy  a  fortune  for  the  Col- 
lege as  it  was  for  the  new  President.  Indeed,  it  was 
happier,  in  proportion  as  the  life  of  the  institution  is 
greater  and  of  more  importance  than  that  of  any  indi- 
vidual man.  Fortunately  also,  no  interruption  nor  les- 
sening of  the  harmony  occurred  in  the  years  that  fol- 
lowed, and  none  seems  likely  to  occur  in  the  future. 


368 


XIX. 

The   University — 1886   to    1899 — Changes  from   the 
Earlier  Time. 

PRESIDENT  PORTER  closed  his  official  term 
on  the  30th -of  June,  1886.  His  purpose  of 
laying  aside  his  duties  at  that  time  had  been 
made  known  to  the  Corporation  several  months  earlier, 
and  that  body,  in  view  of  this  fact,  elected  me  as  his  suc- 
cessor on  the  2Oth  of  May  in  that  year.  The  cere- 
monies of  inauguration  took  place  on  the  ist  of  July. 
The  kindly  approval  of  my  appointment  which  was  mani- 
fested by  the  members  of  the  several  Faculties,  and  by 
the  whole  body  of  the  Alumni,  was  most  gratifying  to 
me,  as  well  as  most  encouraging,  as  I  entered  upon  the 
duties  of  the  new  position.  Indeed,  without  such  ap- 
proval, I  could  not  have  brought  myself  to  accept  the 
offer  which  the  Corporation  extended  to  me. 

The  central  idea  of  my  administration,  as  I  looked 
out  upon  it  from  its  beginning,  was  determined  in  my 
own  mind  to  be  that  of  the  University,  as  distinguished 
from  the  College.  This  idea  had  come  to  me  as  an 
inheritance.  It  had  been  also,  in  no  small  measure,  that 
which  gave  me  an  inspiration  for  all  the  upbuilding  work 
of  the  Divinity  School,  so  far  as  I  had  the  privilege  of 
sharing  in  this  work.  As  early  as  the  years  1870  and 
1871  I  had  taken  my  part  in  urging  this  idea  upon  the 
thoughtful  attention  of  the  authorities  of  the  institution, 
and  of  Yale  men  elsewhere.  As  I  was  now  called  to  the 
executive  office,  in  which  I  might  have  a  special  influence, 
I  could  not  help  regarding  the  appointed  work  of  the 

369 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

new  era  as  that  of  bringing  the  thought  of  my  predeces- 
sor in  the  earliest  years  of  the  century,  if  this  should  be 
possible,  to  its  full  realization  in  the  closing  years.  As 
so  much  had  been  accomplished,  also,  during  the  prog- 
ress of  the  century,  in  preparation  for  the  completeness 
of  the  result,  there  seemed  to  be  no  possibility  of  mis- 
taking the  emphasis  of  the  call. 

The  idea  of  the  University,  as  it  was  understood  at 
the  time  and  as  it  had  found  its  place  at  Yale,  was  not 
such  as  to  involve  the  substitution  of  something  else  for 
the  College.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  that  of  an  institu- 
tion including  in  itself  all  the  Faculties — of  the  College, 
of  Natural  and  Physical  Science,  of  Art,  of  Law,  of 
Medicine,  of  Theology — and  having  the  several  depart- 
ments, together  with  such  as  might  be  added  to  them  at 
later  periods,  co-equal  and  co-ordinate.  The  old  era  of 
an  undergraduate  College,  with  schools  for  professional 
or  other  education  attached  to  it  indeed,  but  holding  in 
relation  to  it  as  a  center,  only  a  secondary  position  in 
importance,  or  in  the  interest  of  the  governing  powers, 
was  to  pass  away,  and  to  pass  into  a  new  one,  in  which 
all  alike  should  stand  united  in  the  full  privileges  and 
rights  of  the  common  citizenship — in  which  all,  as  thus 
bound  together,  should  constitute  the  Yale  of  the  greater 
future.  To  the  establishment  of  this  idea  as,  if  I  may 
so  express  it,  the  central  principle  of  the  institution's  life, 
I  felt  it  my  duty,  and  my  good  fortune  also,  to  consecrate 
myself;  and  this  to  the  end  that  the  second  century  of 
our  history  might  give  to  the  third  the  University  as  a 
realized  and  completed  fact.  The  development  toward 
the  fullness  of  a  yet  larger  life  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
powers,  or  even  the  vision,  of  the  present,  would  then  be 
the  appropriate  and  the  inspiring  work  of  the  century 
which  was  soon  to  open. 

With  these  thoughts  in  mind  and  these  hopes  reaching 
forward,  I  felt  that  the  time  had  already  arrived  when 
370 


PRESIDENT   TIMOTHY   DWIGHT 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  true  idea  should  be  formally  recognized.  Accord- 
ingly, at  an  early  meeting  of  the  Corporation,  I  urged 
a  change  of  the  name  of  the  institution,  by  which  it 
should  thereafter  be  called,  not  Yale  College,  but  Yale 
University.  There  had  been  hitherto — especially  on 
the  part  of  some  leading  Yale  men,  both  within  and  out- 
side of  the  College — a  very  considerable  hesitation  with 
respect  to  adopting  such  a  change.  Some  even  felt  a 
satisfaction  in  retaining  the  old  name,  on  the  ground 
that  it  manifestly  claimed  less  for  the  institution  than 
justly  belonged  it.  This  feeling,  however,  had  now 
passed  away  almost  altogether — the  movement  from 
one  Presidential  term  to  another  naturally  turning  the 
general  thought  forward  toward  the  future,  rather  than 
backward  to  the  past.  The  consequence  was,  that  the 
Corporation,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  requested  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  State  to  authorize  the  use  of  the  new  name. 
Within  a  few  weeks,  the  Legislature  took  favorable 
action,  which  was  accepted  and  approved  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  Fellows.  In  May,  1887,  the  title  "  Yale  Uni- 
versity "  was  formally  adopted.  The  universal  senti- 
ment, when  the  change  was  made  known  to  the  gradu- 
ates, was,  as  I  am  sure,  one  of  satisfaction  and 
gratification.  All  felt  that  the  new  name  was  a  recogni- 
tion of  what  had  been  accomplished  and  an  assurance 
of  what  was  to  come. 

A  necessary  result  of  this  change  which  has  been 
alluded  to  was  an  enlargement  of  the  sphere  and  scope 
of  the  executive  duties  pertaining  to  the  Presidential 
office.  The  office,  if  these  duties  were  to  be  rightly  dis- 
charged, must  thereafter,  of  necessity,  have  much  closer 
relations  to  all  the  Departments  outside  of  the  Academi- 
cal College,  than  it  had  ever  sustained  before.  The 
one  who  was  placed  in  it,  and  who  attempted  to  fulfill 
its  work,  must  keep  his  mind  constantly  open  with  a 
wider  outlook,  and  awake  to  all  the  separate  and  varied 

371 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

interests  on  every  side.  He  could  no  longer  unite  the 
two  functions  of  Professor  and  President  in  himself. 
The  marked  growth  of  the  institution,  as  well  as  the  new 
position  which  it  assumed,  rendered  such  a  union  not 
only  inappropriate,  but  even  impracticable.  Foreseeing 
the  necessity  of  the  case,  I  requested  the  Corporation,  at 
the  time  of  my  election  to  the  new  office,  to  release  me 
from  all  obligation  to  carry  on  any  personal  work  of 
teaching.  I  also  requested  that  I  might  be  freed  from 
the  burden  of  the  minor  details  of  discipline  in  the  Col- 
lege, which  had  previously  rested  in  considerable  meas- 
ure— though  not  by  any  means  wholly,  as  in  some 
smaller  colleges — upon  the  President.  We  had  reached 
a  critical  turning-point  in  our  history,  and  the  time 
seemed  to  me — and  happily  for  myself  and,  as  I  think, 
for  my  successors,  to  the  Corporation  also — to  have 
come,  when  there  should  be  a  modification  of  the  earlier 
arrangements  with  reference  to  these  matters.  My  two- 
fold request  was  granted,  and  the  Presidency  was  thus 
put  on  a  new  basis — the  basis,  as  I  may  say,  of  the  Uni- 
versity, rather  than  the  College. 

It  was  not  appointed  for  me,  however,  in  the  order- 
ing of  events,  that  I  should  long  continue  to  discharge 
the  duties  of  only  one  office.  On  the  igth  of  December, 
1886,  as  the  first  college  term  which  followed  my  elec- 
tion to  the  Presidency  was  closing,  the  University  Treas- 
urer, Mr.  Henry  C.  Kingsley,  died.  His  death  was  the 
result  of  an  accident,  and  was  sudden  and  unexpected. 
Owing  to  special  circumstances  and  conditions  at  the 
time,  the  vacancy  in  the  Treasury  administration  was 
a  matter  of  even  more  than  ordinary  significance.  That 
it  should  be  filled,  when  a  new  appointment  was  made, 
by  a  person  of  eminent  fitness,  and  one  giving  satisfac- 
tion to  all,  was  greatly  to  be  desired.  The  gentleman 
who  was  subsequently  called  to  the  position  was  then 
absent  from  the  country,  and  the  Corporation  found 
372 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

much  difficulty  in  selecting  any  one  who  could  be  secured 
for  the  place  and  was  also,  in  their  view,  entirely  ade- 
quate to  its  demands.  Moreover,  the  condition  of  the 
Treasury — though  the  funds  were  much  larger  than  they 
had  been  ten  years  earlier — was  such,  in  relation  to  in- 
come and  expenses,  as  to  render  careful  economy,  at 
least  for  a  time,  very  desirable.  The  result  was  that  the 
charge  of  the  Treasury  was  given  to  me  for  a  limited 
period,  until  some  satisfactory  appointment  of  a  per- 
manent character  could  be  made.  Contrary  to  my 
expectations  at  the  outset,  I  continued  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  the  office  for  two  years,  until  the  time  when 
we  were  so  fortunate  as  to  induce  Mr.  William  W. 
Farnam  to  became  the  Treasurer. 

I  may  state  in  this  connection  also — as  indicating  that 
it  was  allotted  to  me  that  I  should  not  be  limited  to  the 
duties  of  a  single  office — that,  at  the  end  of  the  first  year 
of  my  administration,  Dr.  William  M.  Barbour  who,  as 
the  Chittenden  Professor  of  Divinity,  had  been  the  Col- 
lege Preacher  since  1877,  retired  from  his  position,  that 
he  might  accept  a  prominent  office  in  connection  with 
McGill  University,  in  Canada.  As  the  result  of  his 
withdrawal,  the  responsibility  connected  with  the  supply 
of  the  pulpit  was  laid  upon  me.  This  responsibility 
which  involved  much  preaching  on  my  part,  both  in  the 
College  Chapel  and,  by  exchanges  with  others,  in  vari- 
ous places,  continued  for  six  and  a  half  years.  Impor- 
tant work,  connected  with  two  positions,  was  thus  for  a 
time  added  to  that  which  pertained  to  my  own  special 
sphere.  My  request  addressed  to  the  Corporation  at  the 
beginning  realized  its  purpose  through  their  kindness, 
but,  as  the  event  proved,  it  only  gave  me  freedom  from 
one  kind  of  services,  while  it  opened  the  way  for  those 
of  other  orders. 

By  good  fortune,  within  the  two  years  when  I  was  the 
Acting  Treasurer,  the  resources  of  the  institution  were 

373 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

so  far  increased  that  all  the  special  limitations  and 
causes  of  anxiety  which  had  existed  passed  away.  The 
new  Treasurer  entered  upon  his  duties  with  nothing 
of  this  particular  burden  resting  upon  him,  and  the 
difficulties  were  overcome  without  occasioning  even  any 
temporary  inconvenience  to  the  members  of  the  Faculty. 
It  has  been,  from  that  time  onward,  a  pleasant  remem- 
brance, that  I  was  able  to  accomplish  this  result  during 
the  period  of  my  service  in  this  office  which  opened  to 
me  so  unexpectedly  and  at  so  critical  a  moment.  But  I 
resigned  my  duties,  at  the  end,  to  the  charge  of  my  suc- 
cessor with  a  sense  of  relief  in  laying  aside  its  special 
responsibilities. 

The  demands  of  the  Treasurer's  position  in  the  years 
that  followed  became  so  great,  and  the  range  of  the 
cares  and  duties  connected  with  it  was  so  much  widened, 
that  it  would  have  been  scarcely  possible  for  one  man,  in 
any  adequate  measure  to  assume  even  a  general  respon- 
sibility for  it  and  at  the  same  time  fulfill  the  duties  of 
the  Presidency.  That  the  President  of  the  University, 
however,  should  have  as  thorough  an  acquaintance  as 
possible  with  its  financial  condition,  can  hardly  be  ques- 
tioned; and,  in  my  own  case,  the  knowledge  which  I 
gained  by  reason  of  the  experience  mentioned  proved  to 
be  of  much  benefit  to  myself  and,  I  think  I  may  also  say, 
of  advantage  to  the  institution.  The  perfect  sympathy 
and  harmony  which  existed  always  between  Mr.  Farnam 
and  myself,  in  the  years  of  his  official  term  as  the  Uni- 
versity Treasurer,  was  due  in  part  to  this  knowledge. 

It  may  easily  be  realized  from  what  has  been  already 
said  of  the  two  men,  that  the  death  of  Professor  Thach- 
er,  occurring  just  before,  and  that  of  Mr.  Kingsley, 
occurring  soon  after  my  entrance  upon  my  administra- 
tive office,  removed  from  me  efficient  counselors  and 
helpers  on  whom,  in  my  thought  of  the  coming  years,  I 

374 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

might  naturally  have  rested  many  hopes.  They  had, 
both  of  them,  cordially  favored  my  election  to  the  Presi- 
dency, and  were  ready  to  give  me  their  confidence  and 
support.  Professor  Thacher  had  been,  as  I  have  else- 
where stated,  a  kindly  friend  from  the  days  of  my  youth. 
I  felt  that  in  him  I  should  find  much  wisdom,  gained 
from  long  experience  in  the  sphere  both  of  instruction 
and  government  and  through  intimate  acquaintaince 
with  the  academic  community  and  life.  Mr.  Kingsley, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  had  charge  of  the  Treasury  for 
twenty-four  years,  and  his  ability  and  success  in  connec- 
tion with  his  office  had  been  so  marked  that  I  could 
leave  with  him  the  entire  responsibility  of  all  its  exacting 
and  important  duties.  The  two  men  were,  also,  in  close 
sympathy  with  each  other  in  their  views  respecting  Col- 
lege needs  and  interests.  So  far,  accordingly,  as  their 
spheres  of  action  bordered  on  each  other,  they  acted  har- 
moniously, and  with  a  union  in  efficiency  which  was  most 
serviceable  to  the  institution.  It  would  have  seemed 
strange  to  me,  indeed,  if  I  had  foreseen  at  the  outset 
that  my  new  work  was  to  go  forward  wholly  without 
them,  and  that  I  was  even  to  take  upon  myself,  for  a 
time,  the  office  which  one  of  the  two  had  held. 

But  while  I  was  thus  deprived  of  the  aid  which  these 
valued  officials  of  the  University  would  have  given  me, 
I  had  a  pleasant  experience  at  the  beginning  of  my 
Presidency,  which  none  of  my  predecessors  had  enjoyed. 
Two  of  those  who  had  previously  held  the  executive 
position — Dr.  Woolsey  and  Dr.  Porter — were  still  liv- 
ing in  New  Haven,  the  former  having  the  closest  rela- 
tions of  friendship  to  the  institution  and  the  latter  con- 
tinuing in  its  work  of  instruction.  Both  of  them  took 
part  in  the  services  connected  with  my  inauguration  and 
both  gave  me  their  kindly  approval  as  I  entered  upon 
the  duties  of  the  office  which  they  had  filled.  I  may  add, 
in  this  connection,  a  single  word  of  happy  remembrance, 

375 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

that  the  exercises  of  that  day  of  so  much  interest  to 
myself  were  closed  with  a  benediction — which  seemed 
to  come  from  the  days  of  old — pronounced  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Joseph  D.  Wickham,  at  that  time  the  oldest  living 
graduate  of  the  College,  and  in  his  early  manhood  the 
amanuensis  of  the  first  President  Dwight. 

The  three  Presidential  terms  of  Drs.  Dwight,  Day, 
and  Woolsey  covered  a  period  of  three-quarters  of  a 
century.  The  fourth  quarter  was  divided  between  Dr. 
Porter  and  myself.  At  the  opening  of  Dr.  Porter's 
term,  I  had  nearly  reached  the  age  of  the  three  earlier 
gentlemen  at  their  accession  to  the  office,  but  at  the  close 
of  his  administration,  I  was  within  three  years  of  his  own 
age  when  he  entered  upon  its  duties.  In  general,  I  think 
it  is  desirable  that  a  person  who  is  to  occupy  the  position 
of  the  Presidency  of  a  University  should,  at  the  time  of 
his  election,  be  not  more  than  forty-five.  If  he  is  not 
older  than  this,  he  has  the  possibility  of  a  long  period 
of  service,  and  also  the  advantage,  both  for  himself  and 
for  others,  of  moving  forward  as,  in  the  full  sense, 'a 
contemporary  of  the  men  who  are  to  be  co-workers  with 
him.  He  is  a  man  of  the  new  era,  in  association  with 
men  of  the  new  era.  This  advantage  is,  in  greater  or 
less  measure,  lost  if  the  man  be  much  farther  advanced 
in  age  at  the  beginning  of  his  official  term — unless,  in- 
deed, he  is  of  youthful  spirit  and  progressive  thought 
and  energy.  But,  as  related  to  my  own  individual  case 
and  my  personal  happiness,  it  was,  as  I  think,  a  kindly 
ordering  of  life,  that  I  was  not  called  to  the  executive 
position  earlier  than  I  was — that  a  longer  period  was 
allowed  me  in  my  Professorial  career.  Those  additional 
years  were,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  the  harvest  time  of  my 
student  life,  and  I  look  back  upon  them,  and  upon  the 
work  and  associations  pertaining  to  them,  with  most  de- 
lightful recollections.  They  were  the  years  when  the 
enjoyment  of  our  completed  effort  to  re-establish  the 
376 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Divinity  School,  and  of  our  connection  as  teachers  with 
an  earnest  and  enthusiastic  company  of  young  theological 
scholars,  came  to  us  in  abounding  richness.  I  was  called 
to  my  new  office  when  the  blessing  of  the  old  one  had 
thus  been  fully  realized,  and  that  which  was  now  opened 
to  me  was  an  addition  to  the  happiness  of  the  life-time 
accompanied  by  no  loss. 

The  fact  that,  in  my  earlier  years,  I  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Academical  Faculty,  was  of  much  advantage 
to  me  in  the  Presidency.  By  reason  of  this  fact  I  knew 
well  the  life  and  movement  of  the  College  in  all  its 
range;  and,  as  my  memory  reached  backward  farther 
than  that  of  almost  any  of  my  colleagues  in  that  De- 
partment, I  was  quite  as  familiar  as  they  could  be  with 
the  precedents  and  history  of  the  former  time.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  was,  I  am  sure,  a  benefit  to  the  institution 
as  well  as  to  myself,  that  I  had  been  connected,  during 
the  period  of  its  renewed  growth,  with  one  of  its  Schools 
which  was  farther  removed  from  the  older  center  of 
thought  and  interest. 

There  were  two  members  of  the  Academical  Faculty, 
when  I  became  associated  with  it  as  President  of  the  Uni- 
versity, who  were  much  older  than  myself — Professor 
Elias  Loomis,  who  graduated  as  Bachelor  of  Arts  nine- 
teen years  before  me,  and  Professor  James  D.  Dana, 
whose  graduation  preceded  my  own  by  sixteen  years. 
Neither  of  these  gentlemen  was  an  active  member  of 
the  body  during  the  period  of  my  Tutorship.  Professor 
Loomis  had  held  the  Tutorial  office  from  1833  to  1836, 
but  from  the  latter  year  until  1860,  when  he  was  elected 
to  the  Professorship  of  Natural  Philosophy  and  Astron- 
omy, he  had  been  connected  with  other  institutions.  Pro- 
fessor Dana,  on  the  other  hand,  though  elected  to  his 
office  in  1850,  did  not  enter  upon  his  duties  as  one  of 
the  governing  board  until  two  months  after  I  had  given 

377 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

up  my  position.  In  a  certain  sense,  indeed,  and  an  im- 
portant one,  Dr.  Porter  also  still  had  a  relation  to  the 
Faculty,  by  reason  of  his  retention  of  his  professorship. 
But,  as  he  requested,  on  his  retirement  from  the  Presi- 
dency, that  he  might  not  be  called  upon  to  attend  Faculty 
meetings,  and  as  he  never  afterwards  attended  but  one 
such  meeting — one,  moreover,  which  had  no  reference  to 
any  matter  of  discipline  or  government — I  have  not  in- 
cluded him  with  the  two  whom  I  have  just  mentioned. 

Of  the  other  gentlemen  who  composed  the  body  in 
July,  1886,  all  with  a  single  exception  were  members 
of  classes  of  which  I  had  been  a  teacher  during  a  por- 
tion of  their  undergraduate  career,  or — as  was  true  of 
the  very  large  majority — of  classes  at  Yale,  or  else- 
where, the  date  of  whose  graduation  was  not  earlier 
than  that  of  my  entrance  upon  the  duties  of  my  office  in 
the  Divinity  School.  The  single  exception  alluded  to 
was  Professor  Hubert  A.  Newton,  who  was  nearly  of 
my  own  age.  As  he  had  received  his  appointment  to 
the  office  of  Tutor  in  1853  and  to  his  professorship  in 
1855,  ne  nac^  been  already  engaged  in  teaching  for  more 
than  thirty  years.  His  associates  in  the  Faculty  at 
that  time  had,  at  least  the  larger  proportion  of  them, 
been  his  pupils  in  their  college  days. 

By  reason  of  the  comparative  smallness  of  the  num- 
ber of  older  men  in  the  membership  of  the  body  at  that 
date — at  present,  there  are  nine  or  ten  who  are  farther 
on  in  years  than  I  was  then — and  because  of  the  facts 
alluded  to  in  connection  with  this  limited  number,  the 
Academical  Faculty  which  I  met  in  1886  was  an  entirely 
new  one,  as  compared  with  that  which  I  had  left  thirty- 
one  years  before.  As  individuals,  however,  they  were, 
most  of  them,  by  no  means,  new  men.  In  the  University 
circle  I  had  known  them  with  more  or  less  intimacy  of 
acquaintance  and,  as  a  consequence,  I  entered  upon  my 
office,-not  as  a  stranger,  but  quite  as  if  I  had  been  placed, 
378 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

though  in  a  somewhat  different  position,  yet  still  within 
the  limits  of  the  former  relationships  and  the  old  life. 
I  had,  accordingly,  every  advantage  which  this  fact  could 
give. 

My  three  predecessors,  Drs.  Day,  Woolsey  and 
Porter,  were,  like  myself,  called  to  the  executive  office 
after  a  prolonged  period  of  service  as  Professors  in  the 
institution.  In  the  first  century  of  the  College  history, 
there  was  no  Faculty  having  in  any  measure  a  per- 
manent character.  Even  at  the  date  of  Dr.  Dwight's 
election  to  the  Presidency,  there  was  but  a  single  Pro- 
fessor in  the  institution,  and  he  was  holding  his  position 
only  by  an  annual  appointment.  It  may  be  said,  there- 
fore, that  the  custom  in  regard  to  this  matter  has  been 
uniform  at  Yale,  ever  since  such  a  custom  could,  by  the 
possibilities  of  the  case,  be  established.  The  same  course 
has  also  been  followed  with  reference  to  the  opening  of 
the  new  century,  in  connection  with  the  choice  of  Presi- 
dent Hadley,  towards  whom  personally  Yale  men  have 
the  friendliest  sentiment  and  in  the  success  of  whose  ad- 
ministration they  feel  a  very  deep  interest. 

Whether  a  constant  and  unvarying  adherence  to  the 
custom  in  the  future  will  be  of  advantage  to  the  Uni- 
versity, it  may  not  be  wise  for  us,  who  are  of  to-day, 
to  try  to  determine.  The  coming  time  may  prove  to 
have  peculiar  conditions  or  special  demands,  which  can- 
not now  be  foreseen.  But  we  may  safely  say  that,  other 
things  being  equal,  there  are,  and  are  likely  to  be,  mani- 
fest benefits  resulting  from  elections  to  the  chief  office 
of  persons  within  the  membership  of  the  Faculties,  which 
may  not  otherwise  be  realized.  But  if  the  custom  is  to 
have  continuance  in  the  new  century — especially  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  Presidency  is  becoming,  of  necessity, 
in  larger  measure  an  executive  office,  it  would  seem  essen- 
tial that  the  authorities  of  the  University  should,  in  their 
selection  of  Professors,  consider  sometimes  at  least  those 

379 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

gifts  and  qualities  which  especially  fit  one  for  the  impor- 
tant duties  of  administration.  The  executive  faculty  be- 
longs to  some  scholars,  but  not  to  all. 

The  thirteen  years  from  1886  to  1899  are  so  recent 
that  the  record  of  their  progress  and  results  is  written  in 
the  living  memory  of  the  graduates  of  the  University, 
The  time  for  presenting  it  from  the  historian's  point  of 
view  has  not  yet  arrived;  and,  as  I  have  already  inti- 
mated, such  a  presentation  with  any  fullness  of  detail 
would  not  be  in  accordance  with  the  plan  and  design  of 
this  volume.  I  shall  only  allow  myself  to  call  attention 
to  some  of  the  changes  and  growths  as  compared  with 
the  earlier  periods,  and  to  give  a  few  descriptive  words 
respecting  the  men  whose  service  to  the  institution  and 
whose  life-work  ended  within  these  years. 

As  I  returned,  by  reason  of  my  entrance  upon  the 
Presidential  office,  to  the  more  immediate  and  close  con- 
nection with  the  Faculty  of  the  Academical  Department 
and  its  student  community,  such  as  I  had  known  in  the 
beginning  of  my  career  as  a  teacher,  I  was  deeply  im- 
pressed with  two  great  changes  which  time  had  brought. 
The  first  of  these  had  relation  to  the  Faculty,  and  the 
second  to  the  students.  The  Faculty  had  grown  in  num- 
bers so  far  that  it  seemed  to  be  a  body  of  an  altogether 
different  character  from  that  of  the  former  days.  It 
was  no  longer  a  little  company  of  seven  or  eight  per- 
manent officers  and  as  many  more  temporary  ones,  who 
could  meet  together  in  a  small  study-room  and  talk  with 
each  other  freely  of  matters  of  which  all,  or  nearly  all, 
had  a  common  knowledge,  and  in  which  all,  without  ex- 
ception, had  a  common  interest.  It  had  become  a  body 
of  a  more  legislative  character;  its  membership  being 
more  than  twice  as  large,  and  being  separated  by  the 
elective  system  into  sections  of  men,  harmonious  indeed 
in  feeling  and  sentiment,  but  limited  in  their  relations 
380 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  students,  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  them,  to 
such  as  were  pursuing  their  own  special  courses.  As  a 
consequence  of  this  changed  condition,  new  questions  of 
government  and  discipline,  as  well  as  of  the  general  life 
of  the  community,  began  to  suggest  themselves  for  con- 
sideration— questions  well  worthy  of  thought,  and  ap- 
pealing for  their  decision  to  the  highest  wisdom.  These 
questions,  as  bearing  on  the  future,  were  emphasized  by 
the  rapid  increase,  in  the  following  years,  of  the  mem- 
bership of  the  board  of  professors  and  instructors.  To 
some  of  these  questions  I  may  find  occasion  to  refer  on  a 
later  page. 

A  marked  change  had,  also,  taken  place  in  the  under- 
graduate student  community,  which  had  its  bearing,  and 
an  important  one,  on  matters  of  discipline  and  govern- 
ment. The  advance  of  the  years  from  1855  to  1886 
had  been  attended  by  what  I  may  call  a  civilizing  proc- 
ess in  our  colleges.  As  the  result  of  this,  students  were 
now,  in  a  measure  quite  beyond  the  earlier  period,  young 
men  rather  than  schoolboys,  in  respect  to  many  individ- 
ual things  pertaining  to  their  daily  life  and  manners,  and 
also  as  related  to  the  prevailing  tone  and  spirit  of  the 
community.  Disorderly  tendencies  and  practices  which 
were  characteristic  of  the  former  time  had,  many  of 
them,  so  entirely  passed  away  that  they  were  not  only 
beyond  the  remembrance  of  the  present  generation,  but 
even  beyond  the  limits  of  its  desires  or  of  its  thoughts. 
The  social  atmosphere  was  now  that  of  a  large  Uni- 
versity of  the  new  age,  as  contrasted  with  that  of  a 
small  college  of  the  older  era.  Not  that  all  evils  had 
ceased,  nor  that  there  were  no  longer  things  existing 
which  were  unworthy  of  educated  youthjustapproaching 
manhood.  But  there  was  very  manifest  growth  in  and 
towards  the  life  that  may  become  the  ideal.  It  was  a 
pleasure  to  observe  and  know  the  student  body  as 
looking  upon  it  from  the  office  of  central  administra- 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

tion, — a  pleasure  which  could  not  have  been  so  fully 
realized  thirty  or  fifty  years  before. 

Partly  as  a  consequence  of  the  new  condition  of  the 
student  community  in  the  aspect  referred  to,  and  partly, 
no  doubt,  as  a  cause  of  it,  the  relations  between  instruc- 
tors and  their  pupils  had  become,  within  the  period  men- 
tioned, less  formal  and  less  fully,  if  I  may  so  say,  in  the 
governmental  sphere.  The  two  parties  were  now  more 
friendly  with  the  friendship  of  older  and  younger  men — 
the  sense  of  authority  on  the  one  side,  and  the  feeling  of 
opposition  to  it  or  desire  to  be  free  from  it  on  the  other, 
giving  way  to  scholarly  sympathy  and  mutual  helpful- 
ness. This  change  or  growth  of  sentiment  by  which  the 
later  years  of  the  century  have  been  marked  in  the  Uni- 
versity life  awakens  large  hope  for  the  future. 

With  reference  to  my  own  personal  feeling  as  related 
to  these  changes,  I  may  allow  myself  to  say  that,  as  indi- 
cating the  progress  of  the  institution  and  its  history,  they 
were  peculiarly  interesting  and  gratifying.  They  could 
not  be  otherwise,  for  they  were  in  the  line  of  my  faith 
and  hope  from  the  beginning  of  my  career  as  a  college 
teacher.  There  was  one  thing,  however,  incidental  to 
the  great  increase  in  the  membership  of  the  student  com- 
munity and  to  the  enlargement  of  the  sphere  and  re- 
lations of  the  Presidential  office,  which  I  could  not  but 
regret.  The  familiar  personal  acquaintance  with  stu- 
dents individually,  which  I  had  found  possible  in  the 
early  days,  was  no  longer  open  to  me.  They  were  too 
many  in  number — I  was  burdened  with  too  many  im- 
perative official  duties.  One  source  of  enjoyment  and  of 
special  influence,  at  least  in  the  measure  which  I  had 
desired,  was  thus  closed  to  me.  I  was  obliged  to  stand 
only  in  a  more  public  relation  to  the  young  men  collec- 
tively, and  to  have  such  power  for  good  in  their  personal 
lives  as  might  result  from  it  alone.  I  trust  that  this 
power  was  not  altogether  wanting;  and  if  I  may  judge 
382 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

from  the  universal  kindly  feeling  which  the  young  men 
manifested  during  the  college  years,  and  have  exhibited 
also  in  the  years  that  have  followed,  I  may  believe  that 
my  trust  has  some  true  foundation.  It  may  be  well  for 
us  all  to  remember — when  such  regrets  come  to  us — that 
intimacies  of  friendly  acquaintance  have  their  limita- 
tions, almost  of  necessity,  to  equalities  in  age,  and  that 
the  sons  cannot  know  the  men  of  the  older  generation, 
or  open  themselves  to  their  knowledge,  as  fully  and 
freely  as  their  fathers  did.  If  we  can  be  in  any  measure, 
though  in  another  way,  to  the  sons  what  perchance  we 
may  have  been  to  the  fathers,  we  may  have  a  happy  re- 
membrance, after  we  have  bidden  them  farewell,  that 
they  knew  us  and  we  knew  them.  So  life  has  much  of 
the  richness  of  its  reward  even  to  the  end.  For  me,  cer- 
tainly, the  pleasures  of  memory  go  back  not  only  to  the 
earlier  years,  but  to  the  later  ones. 


XX. 

The  Faculty — Professors  Loomis,  James  D.  Dana,  and 
Newton. 

THE  life-work  of  twelve  members  of  the  several 
Faculties  of  the  University  came  to  its  close 
within  the  thirteen  years  of  which  I  am  now 
writing.  My  personal  relations  to  them  all  were  of  the 
most  friendly  character,  and  they  honored  me  by  their 
confidence  and  kind  regard.  Of  two  of  the  number, 
Drs.  Porter  and  Harris,  I  have  already  given  some  com- 
memorative and  descriptive  words.  I  will  now  en- 
deavor, as  best  I  may,  and  with  true  appreciation  of  their 
eminent  worth  and  service  to  the  institution,  to  present 
the  thought  of  the  others  which  I  have  in  mind. 

Professor  Loomis  was  a  man  of  such  marked  indi- 
viduality and  striking  idiosyncrasies,  that  he  would  have 
been  a  noticeable  figure  in  any  company  in  which  he 
might  have  found  a  membership  for  himself.  I  re- 
member the  impression  that  he  made  upon  me  when  I 
met  him  for  the  first  time,  and  was  introduced  to  him  as 
a  young  graduate  of  Yale.  It  was  while  I  was  still  in 
Germany  as  a  student,  and  soon  after  he  had  arrived  in 
the  city  where  I  was  spending  a  winter.  On  my  name 
being  announced  to  him,  he  immediately  began  to  ask  me 
for  information  respecting  myself — putting  questions 
concisely,  and  in  rapid  succession,  as  to  my  year  of 
graduation,  my  purpose  in  visiting  Europe,  my  studies, 
the  probable  length  of  my  absence  from  home,  etc.,  etc., 
until  I  had  the  feeling  that  he  was  desirous  of  making  an 
exhaustive  search  throughout  my  outer  and  inner  life 

384 


PROFESSOR    ELIAS    LOOMIS 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

for  all  that  I  had  or  was.  It  seemed  strange,  indeed,  for 
a  first  interview;  and  yet  not  altogether,  perhaps,  like 
ordinary  curiosity.  He  was  apparently  taking  into  his 
mind  all  the  items  of  knowledge  respecting  a  new  speci- 
men of  human  nature  which  he  had  chanced  to  discover, 
and  was  doing  so  with  the  intention  of  placing  them 
in  some  catalogue  or  collection  belonging  to  himself.  I 
almost  wondered  whether,  after  he  had  completed  his 
investigation,  there  would  be  anything  in  my  past  his- 
tory, or  my  purposes  or  hopes  for  the  future,  which 
would  remain,  in  any  full  measure,  my  own.  I  said  to 
myself,  as  I  parted  from  him :  "  I  ne'er  shall  see  his  like 
again." 

.Nothing  could  have  been  more  remote  from  my  mind 
at  the  time  of  that  interview  than  the  thought  that  my 
new  acquaintance  and  myself  would,  after  an  interval  of 
three  years,  both  of  us  be  professors  at  Yale,  and  that 
our  connection  in  the  membership  of  the  Faculties  would 
continue  for  nearly  a  generation.  Such,  however,  was 
the  fact,  as  yet  hidden  from  our  knowledge,  which  the 
future  was  to  realize.  The  death  of  Professor  Olmsted, 
of  the  older  Faculty,  occurred  in  1859,  and  a  year  after- 
wards, Professor  Loomis  was  called  to  fill  his  place  in 
the  Chair  of  Natural  Philosophy  and  Astronomy.  As 
I  came  to  know  him  more  fully  in  the  subsequent  years,  I 
formed  a  more  distinct  impression  of  the  man  as  he  was, 
and  saw  clearly  that  his  questionings  and  his  manner 
of  presenting  them  were  simply  the  result  of  what  I  may 
call  the  quite  peculiar  mathematical  characteristics  of 
his  mind.  He  measured,  and  labeled,  and  put  aside  in 
some  compartment  as  it  were,  everything  which  excited 
his  attention  or  interest.  Persons  and  subjects  of  thought 
were  alike  submitted  to  this  definiteness  of  inquiry  and 
accuracy  of  investigation.  The  brevity  of  his  questions, 
and  indeed  of  his  expressions  in  general, — as  well  as  the 
consequent  seeming  rapidity  with  which  they  followed 
385 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

each  other — had  a  close  relation  to  the  same  mathemati- 
cal characteristics.  With  great  clearness  of  intellect  to 
grasp  an  idea,  and  an  insight  which  enabled  him  to  set  it 
forth  in  the  fewest  words,  he  was  disposed  by  his  very 
nature  to  limit  whatever  he  had  to  say  within  such  nar- 
row bounds  that  he  seemed  to  others  to  be  oftentimes  not 
only  inquisitive,  but  also  abrupt.  His  utterances  were, 
as  I  once  heard  a  clergyman  of  the  Anglican  Church  say 
concerning  John  the  Baptist's  answer  to  the  Pharisees, 
"  short,  concise,  and  appropriate  " — appropriate,  cer- 
tainly, to  the  end  which  he  had  in  view.  But  the  inquisi- 
tiveness  was  not  of  the  common  sort.  It  was  that  of  the 
scientific  investigator.  And  the  abruptness  was  such  as 
characterizes  a  man  of  mathematical  mind  who  desires 
to  say  no  more  than  is  necessary  for  the  setting  forth  of 
his  idea. 

Of  course,  this  peculiarity  of  his  afforded  amusement 
to  his  friends  at  times.  I  suppose  we  all  amuse  those 
who  know  us,  occasionally — and  when,  perchance,  we  are 
ourselves  quite  unconscious  of  the  fact.  But  we  may 
find  comfort  in  the  thought  of  our  happy  fortune  in  that 
we  are  not  all  alike — our  world  would  be  a  prosaic  world 
indeed,  if  we  were — and  also  in  the  other  thought,  nearly 
akin  to  it,  that  our  unlikeness  to  a  friend,  and  this  only, 
is  oftentimes  that  which  excites  his  criticism. 

A  little  story,  illustrative,  as  my  first  interview  with 
him  was,  of  the  professor's  method  of  questioning,  found 
easy  circulation  and  credence  in  the  undergraduate  com- 
munity twenty-five  years  ago.  A  young  graduate  of  a 
few  years'  standing, — so  the  story  said — on  returning 
to  New  Haven,  met  the  professor  on  the  public  green, 
and  greeted  him  in  a  respectful  and  friendly  way.  The 
professor,  not  being  quite  fresh  and  sure  in  his  remem- 
brance of  him — as  professors  cannot  always  be,  when 
years  have  passed — proceeded  to  make  inquiries  after 
the  following  manner: — Name?  The  answer  came  as 
386 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

was  fitting.  Given  name?  Again  the  appropriate  re- 
ply. Residence?  This  was  mentioned.  Class?  The 
subject  was  exhaustively  treated — so  the  young  man 
thought.  But  after  all,  the  information  was  gained 
as  quickly,  and  with  as  little  detail  or  effort  in  the  process, 
as  once,  within  my  own  experience,  an  answer  was  se- 
cured from  a  very  eminent  mathematician  to  a  question 
involving  only  the  addition  of  sixteen  to  nine.  At  all 
events,  if  the  story  was  true,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the 
inquiries  could  not  have  been  shorter,  each  one  of  them, 
or  more  to  the  point  which  was  in  the  inquirer's  mind  and 
purpose.  Why  should  one  use  more  words  than  are 
necessary  ? — he  would  have  been  disposed  to  say. 
.  A  similar  brevity  was  oftentimes  exhibited  in  his 
answers  to  questions  presented  to  him  by  others.  On  a 
certain  day  within  his  later  years,  when  he  had  been  for 
some  time  in  impaired  health,  a  friend  of  his,  who  was  a 
member  of  one  of  the  Faculties,  called  upon  him  in  a 
social  and  friendly  way.  This  friend,  having  seen  a 
statement  in  one  of  the  morning  papers  of  the  day  to  the 
effect  that  the  professor's  health  had  recently  been  im- 
proving, opened  the  interview  by  saying,  "  I  am  glad 
to  see  that  the  papers  this  morning  report  that  you  are 
better."  "  False,"  was  the  quick  and  brief  reply — and 
the  professor  moved  on,  at  once,  to  a  quite  different  topic. 
I  remember  that  I  was  myself  once  walking  with  him  for 
a  little  distance  on  one  of  the  city  streets,  on  a  day  near 
the  end  of  the  month  of  January,  and  that  I  said  to  him, 
as  I  thought  I  was  justified  by  the  facts  in  saying,  "  We 
have  had  an  unusually  cold  January  this  year;  is  it  not 
so,  Professor  Loomis?"  "  Exactly  the  average  of  the 
last  forty  years,"  was  his  response.  Short,  concise,  and, 
as  the  worthy  clergyman  might  have  added  with  refer- 
ence to  the  prophet's  answer,  exhaustive — I  said  to  my- 
self. But,  in  a  moment,  I  changed  my  thought,  and  was 
disposed  to  be  forgetful  of  the  professor's  brevity,  and 

387 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

to  felicitate  myself  on  the  happy  fortune  which  I  had,  in 
that  I  was  not  a  statistician  nor  a  recorder  of  averages. 

Professor  Loomis,  however,  was  not  merely  a  man  of 
few  words,  nor  abrupt  in  his  questions  and  answers. 
When  the  first  barrier  was  passed — if  I  may  so  express 
it — he  opened  himself  freely,  and  with  pleasure,  to  con- 
versation. He  was  interested  in  subjects  of  varied  char- 
acter; was  possessed  of  much  information;  had  readiness 
for  discussion  and  for  communicating  what  he  knew;  and 
withal  had  a  certain  humor  which  was  of  a  quiet  order, 
indeed,  but  yet  was  quite  attractive  and  pleasing.  He 
lived,  for  many  years,  much  of  the  time  alone,  and  was 
more  disposed  to  solitude  than  to  social  life,  yet  not  as 
much  more  so  as  to  many  he  seemed  to  be.  His  wife 
had  died  before  his  coming  to  New  Haven  to  enter  upon 
his  professorship,  and  his  sons,  after  their  graduation, 
were  removed  from  him  in  their  residence  and  occupa- 
tions for  a  considerable  portion  of  his  later  life.  His 
solitude  was  largely,  therefore,  due  to  the  ordering  of 
his  life's  experience.  But  it  was  also  largely  the  result  of 
his  natural  tastes  and  inclination.  Scholars  and  men  of 
thought  generally  have  a  stronger  tendency  to  retire- 
ment within  themselves,  than  those  whom  we  call  men 
of  affairs.  They  live  more  apart  from  the  world,  be- 
cause the  sphere  of  their  mental  working  is  farther 
removed.  This  is  eminently  true  of  scholars  in  certain 
special  departments,  among  which  mathematical  science 
may  surely  be  reckoned  as  having  its  place.  The  man 
whose  natural  gifts  fit  him  for  the  pursuit  of  this  science, 
and  such  sciences  as  have  affiliation  with  it,  finds  himself 
in  large  measure  independent  of  other  men.  He  can  be 
alone,  without  any  oppressive  feeling  of  loneliness.  He 
can,  if  need  be,  talk  to  himself,  and  find  in  himself  a 
most  intelligent  and  satisfactory  listener — one  most  re- 
sponsive to  his  inmost  and  deepest  thoughts.  But  it  does 
not  necessarily  follow,  that  such  a  man  must  always 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

separate  himself  from  companionship  with  others,  be- 
cause he  is  able  to  find  enjoyment  in  solitude.  The 
hermit  element  is  seen  in  its  full  power  and  absolute 
control  in  but  few,  whether  of  the  scholarly  class  or  of 
other  classes.  Professor  Loomis  was,  by  no  means, 
one  of  these  few.  He  was  content  to  be  alone,  and 
yet  also  not  to  be  alone.  He  was  more  content  to  be 
alone  than  most  of  those  who  surrounded  him  were. 
But  social  life  was  not  without  attractiveness  to  him, 
and  he  could  leave  his  studies  and  meditations  for  a 
season,  with  no  regret,  in  order  that  he  might  have  con- 
verse and  conference  with  other  minds  and  on  other 
themes. 

.  In  his  early  manhood,  soon  after  he  left  the  office 
of  Tutor  at  Yale,  in  1836,  Mr.  Loomis  was  invited 
to  take  a  position  in  Western  Reserve  College,  then 
recently  founded.  His  professorship  in  that  institution 
included  Mathematics,  as  well  as  Natural  Philosophy 
and  Astronomy.  In  the  chairs  which  he  afterwards 
filled,  in  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York,  at 
Princeton,  and  in  our  own  College,  his  work  as  an  in- 
structor was  devoted  to  the  two  last  named  studies.  If 
we  look  at  his  career,  as  a  whole,  we  may  say  that  it 
was  consecrated — and  with  a  truly  remarkable  per- 
sistency of  endeavor  and  a  wonderful  concentration 
of  purpose  and  desire — to  the  science  of  Astronomy. 
There  have  been  few  instances,  indeed,  in  our  country's 
history  of  such  constancy  in  the  earnest  pursuit  of  one 
great  end,  in  spite  of  all  difficulties  and  delays,  as  that 
which  he  manifested  during  the  long  years  of  his  stu- 
dent life,  and  even  to  its  end.  He  lived  to  see  and 
realize,  in  part,  the  consummation  of  his  hopes.  But  he 
looked  forward  beyond  his  own  time  and,  with  the  same 
love  of  his  science  and  devotion  to  it  still  continuing, 
he  provided  by  his  will  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  work. 
He  gave  his  entire  estate  of  somewhat  more  than  three 

389 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

hundred  thousand  dollars  to  our  University — one-third 
of  it  at  his  death,  and  the  remainder  after  the  death  of 
his  sons — for  the  uses  of  the  Astronomical  Observatory, 
in  the  way  of  making  observations  for  the  promotion  of 
the  science,  and  of  publishing  such  observations  and  the 
investigations  founded  upon  them.  He  was  himself  a 
scientific  investigator,  and  he  desired  the  income  of  his 
bequest,  in  all  the  future,  to  be  thus  devoted  to  science. 
It  is  pleasant  to  think  that  his  name  will  always  be  con- 
nected with  the  University  as  that  of  a  friend  who,  in 
what  seemed  to  men  about  him  the  silent  progress  of 
his  life,  ever  kept  in  mind  one  work  in  its  behalf  which, 
by  his  generosity  at  the  end,  was  made  perpetual  for  its 
future  history. 

As  an  instructor,  he  was,  as  might  naturally  be  in- 
ferred from  what  has  been  already  said  of  him,  char- 
acterized by  great  clearness  of  statement  and  equally 
marked  conciseness  in  his  expression  of  his  ideas.  The 
student  who  was  attentive  could  not  fail  to  understand 
his  meaning  and  to  gain  from  him  the  light  which  he 
wished  for  or  needed.  I  have  rarely,  if  ever,  seen  a 
man  who,  having  distinctly  grasped  an  idea,  could  set 
it  forth  in  such  aptly  chosen  words,  or  in  so  few  of  them. 
He  had  mathematical  precision  in  its  exactest  measure. 
As  an  astronomer  he  must,  it  would  seem,  have  also  had 
an  imaginative  element  in  his  nature.  But  he  did  not 
display  it  in  his  teaching,  in  any  considerable  degree. 
He  was  inexpressive,  also,  on  the  emotional  side.  This 
part  of  the  inner  life  was  kept  within  himself,  and  he 
appeared  before  his  classes  in  the  lecture  or  recitation 
room  as  a  man  of  intellect  only,  dealing  with  purely  in- 
tellectual matters.  There  was,  as  a  consequence,  a  cer- 
tain strangeness  or  marvel  about  him  in  the  thought  of 
his  students,  as  if  science  were  personified,  and  its  utter- 
ances were  only  of  itself  and  were  brief  with  the  brevity 
of  a  definition.  Yet  his  pupils  who  cared  for  their 
390 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

studies  in  his  department  of  learning  respected  him  high- 
ly for  his  attainments  and  scientific  ability,  and  they  all 
recognized  the  fact  that  there  could  be  no  misappre- 
hension of  the  meaning  of  what  he  said,  even  as  there 
was  no  indefiniteness  in  his  own  ideas,  or  in  the  words 
by  means  of  which  he  gave  expression  to  them. 

The  very  great  success  which  attended  and  followed 
the  publication  of  his  mathematical  works,  and  of  his 
books  on  astronomy  and  meteorology,  in  which  last-men- 
tioned sciences  he  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  Ameri- 
can scholars  of  his  generation,  is  a  testimony  to  the  un- 
usual ability  which  he  had  both  as  a  man  of  science  and 
as  a  man  of  clearness  and  distinctness  in  the  presentation 
of  truth.  The  estate  left  by  him  at  his  death  was  largely 
founded  upon  the  extensive  and  continuous  sale  of  these 
books.  In  addition  to  his  mental  gifts  which  fitted  him 
for  scientific  investigation,  he  possessed  a  greater  than 
ordinary  business  capacity,  and  in  the  business  sphere  he 
was  characterized  by  the  same  exactness,  incisiveness, 
and  clear  insight,  that  he  manifested  as  a  man  of  learn- 
ing and  research. 

Professor  Loomis  continued  his  work  of  instruction  in 
the  College  until  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  my  Presi- 
dency. But  his  health,  in  his  advancing  life,  had  already 
begun  to  fail  before  this  time,  and  at  length  he  was  con- 
strained to  withdraw  altogether  from  public  duties.  He 
continued  his  private  studies,  however,  as  one  who  was 
limited,  indeed,  in  physical  strength,  but  was  still  in  full 
vigor  of  mind.  With  the  utmost  care  he  prepared  and 
arranged  the  results  of  his  investigations,  in  order  that 
they  might  be  given  to  the  world.  In  fulfillment  of  his 
earnest  desire,  he  was  enabled  to  complete  the  last  work 
to  which  he  had  given  his  thought  and  effort — and  then, 
with  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  that  all  had  been  accom- 
plished, he  looked  forward,  in  quietness  of  spirit,  to 
the  closing  of  his  life.  His  name  is  recorded  in  a  place 
391 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  honor  among  the  scholars  and  teachers,  and  among 
the  devoted  sons  and  generous  benefactors  of  Yale. 

Professor  Dana  was  a  man  who  stood  in  the  academic 
community  in  quite  marked  contrast  to  Professor 
Loomis.  He  had  none  of  the  peculiarities  of  his  col- 
league which  have  been  alluded  to,  and  nothing  of  that 
strangeness  of  the  inner  and  outer  life,  as  it  seemed  to 
many  of  the  latter's  pupils,  which  made  them  regard 
him  as  an  almost  unknowable  personality.  In  this  re- 
spect, he  was  less  of  a  historic  character  in  the  life  of  the 
institution,  recalled  by  graduates,  in  all  their  memories 
of  the  past,  as  a  striking  and  peculiar  figure  in  the  old 
scenes  that  could  not  cease  to  be  interesting.  There  is  a 
certain  pleasure  in  the  remembrance  of  such  men  be- 
cause they  give  a  kind  of  picturesqueness  to  the  former 
days. 

Professor  Dana  was,  also,  by  reason  of  the  arrange- 
ments of  the  course  of  study,  brought  into  less  frequent 
or  continuous  intercourse  with  the  students  than  Profes- 
sor Loomis  and  the  majority  of  his  other  associates  of 
the  Faculty.  The  subjects  which  he  taught  were  mainly 
or  wholly  confined  to  the  Senior  year,  and  were  limited, 
in  the  time  allowed  for  them,  to  a  comparatively  brief 
period.  During  the  larger  portion  of  his  active  pro- 
fessorial career  the  elective  system  was  either  not  yet, 
in  any  true  sense,  introduced,  or  was  only  developed  in  a 
moderate  degree.  There  was,  accordingly,  but  little 
opportunity  afforded  for  any  full  study  of  the  subjects, 
or  any  extended  research.  Instruction  was  given,  in 
large  measure,  by  lectures,  and  these  were  not  accom- 
panied by  strict  requirements  of  personal  investigation 
on  the  students'  part.  The  changes  in  the  methods  of 
teaching,  in  this  regard, — even  within  the  past  twenty- 
five  years — can  hardly  be  appreciated  by  any  except 
those  whose  familiar  acquaintance  with  the  College 
392 


PROFESSOR   JAMES   D.    DANA 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

world  has  extended  over  the  whole  period  in  which  they 
have  gradually  been  realized. 

As  a  lecturer,  however,  and  as  a  teacher  through  lec- 
tures, Professor  Dana  was  regarded  with  the  highest 
favor,  as  well  as  the  highest  esteem,  by  the  students, 
even  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  career.  They  saw 
that  he  was  a  master  of  his  subject,  and  they  recognized 
at  once  the  fact  of  his  power  to  make  it  interesting.  His 
language  was  admirably  fitted  to  his  thought  and  was 
felicitously  chosen  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  pur- 
pose. He  had  marked  simplicity  of  style,  and  yet  his 
style  was  always  elevated  and  dignified.  There  was  a 
certain  element  manifest  in  his  writings  and  discourses, 
which  rendered  him  specially  attractive  to  his  student 
audiences,  and  particularly  when  he  rose  in  his  lectur- 
ing, as  he  not  infrequently  did,  into  the  region  of  true 
eloquence.  In  his  later  years — when  the  arrangements 
of  the  College  system,  by  reason  of  their  greater  free- 
dom, allowed  it — he  accompanied  his  lectures  and  pub- 
lic instruction  by  a  more  private  and  familiar  teaching. 
He  invited  his  classes,  or  such  members  of  them  as 
were  disposed  to  do  so,  to  join  him  in  pedestrian  excur- 
sions into  the  region  about  New  Haven.  In  these  ex- 
cursions, which  were  always  made  for  a  scientific  pur- 
pose, he  pointed  out  everything  of  interest,  and  gave  his 
pupils  most  helpful  talks  and  explanations — ever 
awakening  their  enthusiasm,  and  ever  reaching  beyond 
them  in  the  joy  of  his  own. 

In  the  disciplinary  and  minor  administrative  functions 
of  the  Faculty,  I  think  he  never  took  any  very  active 
part.  Certainly  he  did  not,  in  his  later  years.  I  doubt 
whether  his  tastes  and  the  interest  of  his  mind  ever 
turned  in  this  direction.  The  sphere  of  his  professor- 
ship, as  already  indicated,  was  in  considerable  measure 
outside  of  the  daily  college  life.  He  was,  accordingly, 
not  brought  into  contact  with  that  life  as  some  of  his 

393 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

colleagues  were.  In  the  larger  matters  pertaining  to 
the  institution,  on  the  other  hand,  he  kept  his  thoughts 
wakeful  and  held  his  energies  always  ready  for  emergen- 
cies as  they  arose.  The  Scientific  School,  in  relation  to 
its  organization  and  early  development,  owed  much  to 
his  counsel  and  his  efforts.  The  sympathy  and  aid  which 
he  gave  to  the  first  professors  in  the  school  were  a  con- 
stant encouragement  to  them  as  they  undertook  their 
work,  which  then  had  small  promise  for  the  immediate 
future  and  demanded  heroic  faith  with  reference  to  the 
future  in  the  far  distance.  He  was  also  helpful  to  the 
School  as  it  moved  onward  in  its  history.  Though  con- 
nected in  the  sphere  of  his  special  duties  with  the  Aca- 
demical Department,  his  influence  as  a  man  of  science, 
and  his  advocacy  of  science  as  a  force  in  liberal  educa- 
tion, became  a  factor  in  the  successful  life  of  the  new 
department,  which  none  of  its  friends  or  teachers  failed 
to  recognize.  In  the  general  advance  of  study  and  the 
enlargement  of  the  provisions  for  study,  in  both  of  the 
two  departments,  he  had  in  like  manner  his  share,  as  he 
was  always  interested  in  the  true  university  life. 

The  limitations  of  health,  during  a  considerable  part 
of  the  later  half  of  his  professorial  career,  rendered  it 
difficult,  and  at  times  impracticable  for  Professor  Dana 
to  open  himself  freely  to  social  intercourse  with  his 
pupils,  or  even  with  his  friends.  His  physical  condition 
often  caused  the  excitement  of  conversation  to  be  quite 
harmful  to  him,  and  he  denied  himself,  in  consequence, 
that  which  he  might  otherwise  have  enjoyed.  His 
working  force,  however,  did  not  seem  to  fail.  By  a 
judicious  arrangement  of  his  time  and  measuring  of 
his  strength,  he  enabled  himself  to  do  what  few  men 
in  the  full  vigor  of  their  bodily  powers  accomplish. 
The  results  of  his  labors  will  ever  be  a  testimony  in 
proof  of  the  greatness  of  the  man  to  the  minds  of  those 
who  have  acquaintance  with  his  history. 

394 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

The  personal  appearance  of  Professor  Dana  sug* 
gested  and  answered  to  his  character.  His  movement, 
as  he  walked  in  the  streets,  was  quick  and  energetic,  as 
if  he  had  the  spirit  and  strength  of  youth  even  when  ill 
health  or  advancing  years  had  laid  a  heavy  burden  upon 
him.  The  mind  overpowered  all  the  infirmities  of  the 
body,  and  it  often  seemed  to  a  chance  observer  impos- 
sible that  he  could  be  otherwise  than  in  the  complete 
possession  of  manly  vigor.  His  eyes  exhibited  the  bright- 
ness and  eagerness  of  his  intellect.  They  were  always 
open,  in  the  sphere  of  science,  and  always  penetrative 
into  its  mysteries  and,  as  it  were,  alert  with  respect  to  its 
revelations.  There  was  a  quiet  kindliness  in  his  look, 
and  yet  every  one  who  saw  him  appreciated  the  fact,  that 
it  was  the  kindliness  of  a  man  of  strong  character.  The 
force  of  his  nature  was  manifest  in  his  whole  bearing, 
while  at  the  same  time  his  friendly  disposition  and  kind 
feeling  were  equally  evident.  In  his  ordinary  intercourse 
with  others  he  was  characterized  by  a  graciousness  of 
manner  which  was  very  pleasing,  and  which  was  in  itself 
indicative  of  the  scholarly  gentleman.  In  the  circle  of 
his  more  intimate  associates  he  awakened  a  sentiment 
of  esteem  and  regard  to  which  added  strength  was  given 
as  they  moved  onward  with  him  in  the  duties  and  ex- 
periences of  their  common  life. 

My  memories  of  Professor  Newton  go  back  even  to 
our  undergraduate  days.  He  was  a  student  in  the  class 
which  was  graduated  in  the  year  next  following  my  own, 
and  thus  we  were  fellow-members  of  the  academic 
community  during  three-quarters  of  the  period  of  my 
college  course.  We  were  associates  in  the  Tutorship 
from  1853  to  l855-  We  had  somewhat  of  the  same 
society  connections  in  a  part  of  our  student  life  and,  after 
closing  our  Tutorial  career,  we  were  for  a  short  time 
traveling  companions  in  Europe.  But  when  two  persons 

395 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE      AND     MEN 

live  in  such  close  relations  of  fellowship  as  pertain  to 
a  College  Faculty  for  nearly  forty  years,  the  distinctness 
of  the  old  impressions  is  apt  to  fade  away.  We  forget 
the  man  of  the  early  time,  as  our  thought  is  filled  with 
the  man  of  to-day.  As  with  ourselves,  so  it  is  with  him. 
The  growth  of  the  years  is  so  gradual — it  is,  as  it  were, 
so  silent  and  imperceptible  in  the  process  of  its  move- 
ment— that  there  seem,  at  the  end,  to  have  been  no 
changes.  The  years,  indeed,  have  gone,  but  the  man 
remains.  It  is  a  happy  fact  of  our  life,  no  doubt,  that 
this  is  so.  The  fading  of  older  memories  into  later 
ones  is  not  to  be  regretted ;  and  yet  we  cannot  help  some- 
times wishing  that  the  old  ones  could  retain  their  own 
freshness.  If  the  company  of  my  associates  in  the 
Tutorial  office  could  come  before  my  mental  vision  just 
as  they  were  in  the  early  fifties,  and  I  could  once  more 
see  them  in  the  life  of  those  days,  it  would  be  a  pleasant 
remembrance,  for  it  would  recall  the  beginning  of  the 
manhood  of  each  and  all. 

I  would  pass,  however,  from  this  brief  digression  to 
Professor  Newton,  and  say  a  few  words  of  him.  He 
was  taken  out  of  our  Tutorial  board,  because  of  his 
already  recognized  mathematical  ability,  and  of  the 
feeling  of  the  College  authorities  that  the  professor- 
ship then  recently  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  Professor 
Stanley  should  be  filled  as  soon  as  possible.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1855  the  appointment  was  given  him  to  a  per- 
manent position  as  the  occupant  of  that  chair.  At  that 
time  he  was  only  twenty-four  years  of  age,  yet  notwith- 
standing his  youth  his  friends  had  strong  confidence  that 
the  years,  as  they  passed,  would  show  his  fitness  for  the 
work  assigned  to  him  and  would  witness  his  success. 
His  intellectual  gifts,  as  they  thought,  were  such  as 
qualified  him  in  no  ordinary  degree  for  the  studies  to 
which  he  was  called  to  devote  himself.  He  had  the  in- 
sight of  the  true  mathematician  and  easily  comprehended 
396 


PROFESSOR    HUBERT    A.    NEWTON 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  problems,  whatever  they  might  be,  which  his  science 
offered.  His  thought  reached  out  with  readiness  to- 
wards the  things  as  yet  unknown,  and  he  moved  forward 
to  the  understanding  of  them  by  means  of  the  most  care- 
ful and  accurate  reasoning. 

The  broadness  of  his  mind  as  related  to  science  was 
shown,  in  later  years,  by  his  attainments  in  astronomy 
and  meteorology.  He  was  perhaps  the  most  efficient 
agent  in  the  establishment  of  the  Astronomical  Observa- 
tory at  Yale.  His  devotion  to  its  interests  manifested 
itself  at  all  times.  For  a  considerable  number  of  years 
he  held  the  office  of  its  director,  and  until  his  death  he 
was  continuously  a  member  of  its  Board  of  Managers, 
and  the  Secretary  of  the  Board.  The  University  lost, 
when  he  died,  an  astronomer  of  high  reputation,  as  well 
as  a  mathematician  of  the  first  rank. 

Like  many  men  of  mathematical  powers — though 
not  indeed  all — he  had  a  certain  hesitation  of  speech  and 
slowness  in  utterance.  Whether  this  interfered  in  any 
measure  with  his  success  in  teaching,  I  do  not  know,  but 
it  affected  him  somewhat  in  social  intercourse.  It  was 
mainly,  no  doubt,  natural  to  his  physical  constitution, 
yet  it  may  have  been  in  part  also  the  result  of  that  ex- 
treme desire  for  accuracy  which  is  characteristic  of  men 
devoted  to  his  science.  Mathematicians  must  be  sure 
of  every  step  which  they  take.  Inaccuracy  is  ever  before 
their  minds  as  fatal  to  all  proper  investigation  and  the 
successful  search  for  all  true  results.  It  is  no  wonder, 
therefore,  if  they  speak  slowly,  or  pronounce  decisions 
with  much  deliberateness,  in  cases  where  others  might 
affirm  with  immediate  confidence  or  even  with  emphasis. 
Nor  can  we  be  surprised,  if  the  habit  of  hesitation  in 
utterance  grows  upon  such  a  man,  so  that  it  gains  a 
mastery  over  him  when  there  would  seem  to  be  little  or 
no  occasion  for  his  yielding  to  its  control.  In  Professor 
Newton's  case,  the  habit  was  the  same  in  youth,  as  it  was 

397 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  later  years.  We  who  knew  him  well  were  accustomed 
to  it,  and  his  pupils  thought  little  of  the  matter  when 
they  came  to  have  familiar  acquaintance  with  him  as  an 
instructor.  It  was  merely  one  of  his  peculiarities  which 
they  noticed  after  the  manner  in  which  other  things,  not 
common  to  all  alike,  were  noted  by  them  as  specially 
characteristic  of  individual  teachers.  It  was  outside  of 
the  ordinary  thought,  and  quite  amusing  to  the  hearers, 
when  a  young  student,  who  had  recently  entered  one  of 
his  later  classes,  expressed  to  several  of  his  associates 
his  fear  that  the  professor,  because  of  the  slow  and  hesi- 
tating way  in  which  he  talked,  might  be  finding  the  prob- 
lems presented  to  him  troublesome  or  might  be  doubtful 
as  to  their  solution.  That  the  professor  should  be  thus 
disturbed  by  questions  arising  in  the  class-room  had  not 
entered  the  minds  of  the  young  man's  companions,  as 
they  all  knew  that  he  had  the  true  mathematician's  pene- 
trative power. 

Another  reason  for  hesitancy  such  as  that  which  has 
been  mentioned  may,  as  I  think,  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
the  mathematical  mind,  by  reason  of  its  instincts  and  its 
education  alike,  is  wont  to  discover  difficulties  and  ob- 
jections, as  connected  with  any  question  which  arises, 
more  easily,  and  in  greater  numbers,  than  other  minds 
having  different  or  opposite  gifts.  All  possible  difficul- 
ties must  be  removed,  as  well  as  all  inaccuracy  guarded 
against,  or  the  result  may  not  prove  to  be  sure.  Profes- 
sor Newton  was  characterized  by  this  peculiarity,  as  he 
was  by  the  one  already  alluded  to.  He  saw  many  things 
of  this  character  when  men  about  him  did  not,  or 
when,  if  they  saw  them,  they  did  not  think  it  necessary, 
or  possibly  did  not  wish,  to  give  them  attentive  consid- 
eration. He  was  not  an  unreasonable  combatant,  be- 
cause of  the  objections  which  presented  themselves  to 
his  mind.  He  thought  that  they  should  be  fairly  stated 
and  duly  weighed  in  any  intelligent  discussion.  But  he 
398 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

could  be  reasoned  out  of  them,  so  far  as  their  force  for 
his  own  thought  was  concerned,  or  could  yield  to  the 
opinions  of  others,  or  of  a  majority,  when  these  were  not 
in  accordance  with  his  own.  Yet  he  felt  that  he  must 
take  notice  of  them  for  himself,  and  must  be  honest  in 
his  treatment  of  them.  So  honest  was  he,  that  on  one 
illustrative  occasion,  which  is  well  remembered  by  those 
who  were  present — (when  he  had  vigorously  advocated 
in  a  meeting  of  the  Faculty  a  measure  which  divided  the 
members  in  sentiment,  and  when,  after  answering  all 
objections  brought  forward  by  others,  he  found  the  de- 
cision of  the  question  to  be  still  very  doubtful) — he  said, 
before  giving  his  vote,  that  there  was  a  further  objec- 
tion to  his  own  view  and  proposal  which  had'  not  been 
mentioned  by  any  one.  He  then  proceeded  to  set  it  forth 
in  its  full  force.  The  measure  which  he  advocated  was 
carried;  but  the  characteristic  of  the  man,  as  he  saw 
and  stated,  in  its  bearing  against  himself,  what  none  of 
his  opponents  had  thought  of,  produced  its  own  impres- 
sion. I  well  remember,  also,  his  word  of  objection  when, 
in  1888,  it  was  proposed  that  the  old  one-story  labora- 
tory building,  which  stood  in  the  rear  of  South  Middle 
College,  should  be  removed.  The  building  had  not 
been  used  for  years,  and  no  one  disapproved  of  its  re- 
moval. But  there  was  a  reason  for  retaining  it  which 
he  felt  should  have  consideration,  before  the  final  de- 
cision should  be  made. 

During  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  his  professorial 
career,  he  carried  on  the  regular  instruction  of  entire 
classes  in  his  department  and  was,  as  we  may  say,  one 
of  the  routine  workers  of  the  Faculty.  In  the  later 
period,  he  limited  himself  to  the  teaching  of  smaller 
bodies  of  students,  who  made  choice  of  courses  which 
he  offered  as  electives.  Finally,  in  the  last  two  or  three 
years  of  his  life,  he  was  able  to  offer  only  one  or  two 
courses — his  health  being  much  weakened  at  this  time. 

399 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

To  his  optional  classes  he  was  able  to  give  more  freely 
and  fully  than  he  could  do  to  the  larger  and  less  care- 
fully selected  bodies  of  students,  the  results  of  his  studies 
and  investigations.  In  meeting  these  classes  he  had 
peculiar  pleasure  and  satisfaction.  His  duties  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Faculty  he  continued  to  fulfill  even  to  the 
last,  though  of  course,  as  one  of  the  older  men,  he 
had,  in  the  latter  years,  only  a  small  share  in  the  daily 
administration  of  the  life  of  the  institution. 

Professor  Newton  was  a  man  of  very  kindly  nature. 
He  had  a  warm  affection  for  his  friends,  and  a  genuine 
desire  to  make  friends.  Students  who  went  to  him  for 
help  of  any  sort  found  him  always  ready  to  give  them 
a  welcome  and  to  do  for  them  whatever  was  in  his 
power.  His  kind-heartedness  was  manifested  to  me  in 
the  early  days  and  the  later  days  alike.  To  some  of 
the  younger  scholars  in  his  own  department  of  study, 
who  were  called  to  assist  him  or  become  his  associates 
in  the  work  of  College  instruction,  his  generous  aid  and 
friendly  attitude  were  such  as  to  render  them  ever  after- 
wards grateful  to  him  as  their  teacher  and  older  col- 
league. 

He  was  of  a  family  which  seemed  destined  to  long- 
continued  life,  his  parents  and  grandparents  having 
survived  to  a  very  advanced  age.  His  expectation 
throughout  almost  the  whole  of  his  career,  I  think,  was 
that  his  own  experience  would  prove  to  be  like  theirs. 
But  when  he  had  reached  the  age  of  sixty-three  he  be- 
came enfeebled  by  a  disease  of  a  dangerous  and  threat- 
ening character,  and  after  a  gradual  decline  of  about  two 
years,  during  which  he  kept  on  working  up  to  the  limit 
of  his  powers,  he  died  in  August,  1896.  He  was,  at 
that  time,  the  oldest  Professor  in  the  Academical  De- 
partment. 


400 


XXI. 

Professors  Whitney,  Eaton,  Marsh,  and  Lyman. 

ON  one  of  the  early  pages  of  this  volume  I  have 
mentioned  the  name  of  William  D.  Whitney 
in  connection  with  his  membership  and  my 
own,  in  1850,  in  a  "small  class  of  graduates  who  read 
some  of  the  Greek  classics  with  President  Woolsey.  He 
had  graduated  with  the  highest  honors  at  Williams 
College  four  years  before  the  graduation  of  my  class 
at  Yale,  and  was  already,  as  I  think,  turning  in  his  mind 
and  purpose  towards  the  life  of  a  linguistic  scholar.  He 
had,  indeed,  come  to  New  Haven  with  the  desire, 
especially,  of  studying  Sanscrit  with  Professor  Salisbury, 
then  almost  the  only  teacher  of  this  language  in  the 
country.  He  may  have  thought  of  becoming  a  teacher 
of  Sanscrit  himself,  though  this  might  seem  almost 
incredible  as  we  look  backward  to  the  condition  and 
circumstances  of  that  period.  But  even  if  this  thought 
had  entered  his  mind,  a  position  at  Yale  could  scarcely 
have  suggested  itself  to  him,  for  the  reason  that  there 
was  already  a  professor  here,  who  was  only  thirty-six 
years  of  age,  and  surely  there  could  not  be  an  opening 
for  two  professorships  of  that  language  in  one  institu- 
tion. 

There  are  cases  where  the  Divine  guidance  with 
respect  to  human  lives  seems  to  make  itself  peculiarly 
manifest — a  guidance  which  leads,  through  all  seeming 
uncertainties  and  improbabilities,  or  even  impossibilities, 
to  the  fulfillment  of  a  Divine  purpose.  I  cannot  help 
thinking  of  Mr.  Whitney's  case  as  one  of  these.  It  was 
401 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

for  the  advancement  of  linguistic  science,  and  for  the 
good  of  our  University  as  a  seat  of  sound  learning,  that 
he  was  brought  hither  with  his  scholarly  zeal  and  ardor, 
and  that  the  way  was  opened  for  him,  when  he  was  in 
readiness,  that  he  might  have  a  permanent  life  within 
the  University  walls. 

It  needed  but  to  see  and  meet  him,  to  appreciate  the 
fact  that  he  had  the  scholar's  gifts  and  nature.  We 
who  were  his  associates  in  Dr.  Woolsey's  class  per- 
ceived his  ability  and  understood  his  character,  in  this 
regard,  even  from  the  beginning  of  his  connection  with 
us.  What  we  saw  in  him  was,  of  course,  more  evident 
to  his  instructors,  Professor  Salisbury  and  the  President, 
for  they  had  a  clearer  vision  than  it  was  possible  for 
his  young  fellow-students  to  have.  They  doubtless  soon 
began  to  wish  that  he  might  be  secured  for  Yale  in  the 
future,  though  the  hindrances  and  difficulties  were  con- 
spicuous and  the  outlook  was  full  of  discouragement. 
He  remained  with  us  as  a  student  but  a  single  year,  and 
then — following  his  own  strong  impulse,  and  aided  and 
strengthened  by  the  advice  of  his  two  teachers — he 
entered  upon  a  course  of  study  under  the  leading  scholars 
in  his  department  in  Germany.  This  course  of  study 
was  continued  for  three  years.  Near  the  close  of  these 
years,  a  generous  gift  from  Professor  Salisbury  rendered 
it  possible  for  the  authorities  of  the  College  to  offer 
him  a  professorship;  and  with  the  hearty  approval  of 
the  Faculty  and  the  President,  the  offer  was  made.  The 
professorship  which  Professor  Salisbury  had  held  for 
the  twelve  preceding  years  was,  according  to  his  own 
proposal,  divided  into  two  chairs — Professor  Whitney 
taking  that  of  Sanscrit,  and  Professor  Salisbury  retain- 
ing that  of  Arabic.  But  for  this  generous  gift  and 
proposal,  the  call  to  Mr.  Whitney,  which  made  him 
one  of  the  Yale  fraternity,  could  not  have  been  given, 
and  his  life-work  with  us  would  have  failed  of  its 
402 


PROFESSOR    WILLIAM    D.    WHITNEY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

realization.  A  similar  generosity,  I  may  add,  and  a 
yet  larger  gift  on  the  part  of  Professor  Salisbury,  sev- 
eral years  afterwards,  so  fully  established  the  founda- 
tion of  the  professorship,  that  Mr.  Whitney  was  able 
to  decline  tempting  offers  from  other  institutions. 

In  the  earliest  period  of  my  own  professorship,  which 
began  four  years  later  than  his,  my  study  room  in  the 
old  Divinity  Hall  was  near,  and  during  a  part  of  the 
time  directly  under,  the  one  which  he  occupied.  Our 
duties  were  quite  different,  even  as  our  studies  were. 
He  was  a  University  professor.  My  position  was  in 
the  Theological  School.  He  had,  in  his  special  depart- 
ment of  instruction,  no  pupils,  or  only  an  occasional 
one.  His  time  was,  consequently,  at  his  own  disposal, 
for  the  furtherance  of  his  attainments  and  learning. 
On  the  other  hand,  as  I  have  already  stated,  I  was 
called  to  the  work  of  daily  instruction  and,  in  addition 
to  this,  the  burden  of  the  beginning  of  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  Divinity  School  was,  in  large  measure,  laid 
upon  me.  I  often  thought  of  him  in  those  days  in 
contrast  with  myself,  and  said  to  myself,  Is  not  he, 
engaged  as  he  is  almost  exclusively  in  his  studies,  render- 
ing a  greater  service  to  the  institution,  to  its  fame  and 
its  truest  life,  than  any  of  us,  his  associates,  who  are 
full  of  active  duties  and  may  seem  to  those  who  lodk 
upon  us  to  be  the  real  workers  ?  I  have  never  doubted, 
since  I  saw  him  in  those  years,  the  value  to  a  university 
of  the  presence  within  its  walls  of  scholars  given  wholly 
to  scholarship  and  research. 

In  the  after  years,  however,  he  became  not  only  a 
scholar,  but  a  highly  esteemed  and  gifted  teacher. 
When  the  waiting  period,  as  I  may  call  it,  was  ended — 
the  period  during  which  our  best  colleges  were  develop- 
ing towards  higher  ideals  and  a  wider  reach  of  learning 
— the  demand  for  instruction  in  Sanscrit  and  Philology 
began  to  be  more  manifest.  Students  of  the  best  order 

403 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

came  to  him,  not  in  large  numbers  indeed,  but  with 
much  scholarly  enthusiasm  and  a  full  appreciation  of 
the  bearing  of  what  he  taught  them  upon  their  own 
linguistic  attainments.  In  the  year  1861  when  the 
curriculum  of  the  Scientific  School  was  considerably 
broadened,  he  became  an  instructor  in  Modern  Lan- 
guages in  that  department  of  the  College.  He  had, 
indeed,  before  this  date  met  optional  classes  in  German 
and  French,  but  now  he  assumed  more  regular  and 
continuous  duties  in  this  sphere  of  teaching,  and  united 
himself,  though  still  holding  his  University  chair,  with 
the  Faculty  of  that  school  as  one  of  the  members  of  its 
Governing  Board.  For  a  third  of  a  century  he  remained 
in  this  membership.  As  this  was  a  time  of  marked 
development  and  constantly  advancing  growth  in  the 
school,  he  had  the  opportunity,  which  he  most  wisely 
and  faithfully  used,  of  influencing  it  for  its  highest  good. 
His  career  seems  thus  to  have  been  happily  ordered  for 
him — and  likewise  for  the  University — not  only  in  the 
earlier,  but  also  in  the  later  years.  He  had  at  the 
beginning  a  period  of  scholarship,  mainly  apart  from 
teaching,  while  afterwards,  during  the  long  continuance 
of  his  official  term,  scholarship  and  teaching  were  united 
in  the  most  fortunate  and  most  useful  way — in  a  way, 
also,  most  satisfying  to  himself. 

I  knew  Professor  Whitney  as  a  pupil  knows  his 
teacher  for  a  short  period  in  the  earliest  days  of  his 
professorship.  With  three  or  four  friends  of  about  my 
own  age,  I  studied  the  German  language  under  his 
guidance.  We  had  formed  a  volunteer  class  and,  at  our 
request,  he  gave  us  his  aid.  The  impression  which  I 
then  received  respecting  him  was,  that  as  an  instructor 
he  possessed  unusual  gifts  and  singular  ability.  The 
same  impression,  I  am  sure,  was  made  upon  the  minds 
of  all  his  students  in  the  years  that  followed.  He  had, 
in  an  uncommon  degree,  the  power  of  setting  before  the 
404 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

learner  what  he  needed  and  enabling  him  to  make  it 
his  own.  As  a  consequence,  he  led  him  onward,  without 
ever  suffering  him  to  lose  what  he  had  once  gained. 
The  old  things  were  held  firmly  and  the  movement  was 
constantly  towards  the  new.  The  pupil  thus  felt  an 
abiding  confidence  in  his  teacher — that  no  mistakes 
would  be  made  by  him ;  that  the  limits  of  his  knowledge 
would  not  be  overpassed;  that  difficulties  would  be  ex- 
plained; that  the  force  and  beauty  of  the  language  would 
be  made  known;  that  there  would  be  nothing  to  undo, 
and  that  all  would  be  done  well.  Those  who  were 
faithful  to  his  instruction  left  his  classes,  at  the  end  of 
their  course  of  study,  with  a  firm  grasp  of  the  knowledge 
which  he  had  communicated  to  them.  They  had  become, 
under  his  care  and  training,  scholars  adequate  to  meet 
the  demands  of  the  future,  and  to  move  yet  farther 
onward  if  the  call  should  come. 

Mr.  Whitney  was,  I  think  I  may  say,  the  truest  and 
purest  linguistic  scholar  that  we  had  in  the  Yale  Faculty 
in  his  time — not  only  beyond  the  elder  Professor  Gibbs, 
who  really  belonged  to  the  earlier  period  and  was  thus 
nearer  the  beginnings  of  philological  learning  in  our 
country,  but  even  beyond  his  teacher,  Professor  Salis- 
bury, or  his  fellow-student  and  colleague,  Professor 
James  Hadley.  The  four  men,  in  their  succession  and 
their  union,  did  a  great  work  in  this  department  of 
scholarship,  in  preparation  for  the  era  which  has  already 
begun,  and  the  promise  of  which  is  very  rich  as  we  look 
forward  into  the  new  century.  They  were  not,  however, 
linguistic  scholars  of  the  narrower  order,  but  scholars 
of  wider  vision  and  broader  interests.  The  inheritance 
which  they  have  left  to  the  University  has,  therefore,  a 
special  richness  of  blessing  in  itself.  If  their  best  influ- 
ence shall  remain  in  its  full  force  in  the  minds  of  the 
linguistic  scholars  who  follow  them,  it  will  be  fortunate 
for  our  University  education. 

405 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

In  his  association  with  his  -friends  Mr.  Whitney  was 
affectionate  and  kindly.  He  had  an  open  mind  and 
heart  towards  them.  Like  many,  if  not  most  scholars 
of  his  order,  however,  he  was  somewhat  undemonstra- 
tive. His  emotional  nature,  however  strong  in  character, 
did  not  ordinarily  overcome  his  self-restraint,  and  in 
conversation  with  those  who  met  him  in  social  life  there 
was,  in  general,  no  overflowing  of  feeling  in  words 
through  irrepressible  excitement,  as  in  the  talk  of  some 
very  interesting  men.  He  had  firmly  established  con- 
victions indeed,  and  at  times  he  gave  expression  to  them 
with  emphasis,  and  even  a  sort  of  apparent  impatience. 
But  the  ordinary  movement  of  his  thought  was  calm  and 
quiet,  sympathetic  and  intelligent,  yet  not  aggressive  or 
impulsive.  Some  men  enjoy  their  thoughts  and  feelings 
so  greatly  that  they  cannot  help  making  them  known 
in  friendly  conference  with  those  whom  they  chance  to 
meet.  Others  have  their  enjoyment  so  fully  within  them- 
selves, that  they  have  much  less  impulse  towards  an 
outward  expression  of  it.  The  two  orders  of  men  may 
have  an  equal  richness  of  mind  or  spirit,  and  may  give 
to  their  associates  an  equal  measure  of  satisfaction,  but 
they  are  not  alike.  What  we  gain  from  them  comes  to 
us  by  different  pathways,  if  not  from  different  sources. 
Professor  Whitney  belonged  to  the  latter  class,  yet  he 
had  the  affection  and  the  admiration  of  his  friends,  and 
the  more  as  they  knew  him  more  intimately. 

The  amount  of  scholarly  work  which  he  accomplished 
was  very  remarkable — never  more  so  than  in  the  last 
eight  years  of  his  life,  after  the  disease  which  at  the 
end  proved  fatal  had  seized  upon  him.  Like  Professor 
Dana  in  this  regard,  he  contended  manfully  and  with 
heroism  against  his  infirmity.  Guarding  and  restraining 
himself  most  carefully,  that  he  might  lose  no  measure 
of  his  remaining  strength,  he  went  forward  in  his  studies, 
his  teaching,  his  preparation  of  papers  for  the  press,  his 
406 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

editorial  duties  in  connection  with  the  Century  Dic- 
tionary, and  his  yet  larger  efforts  in  his  own  departments 
of  learning,  with  a  continuous  devotion  and  energy.  It 
was  a  most  interesting  sight  to  see  him  in  those  years. 
He  had  ever  the  consciousness  that  the  end  might  come 
at  any  hour.  So  there  was  a  calmness  and  serenity  in 
his  appearance  as  he  was  working  at  home  or  walking 
abroad.  Yet  there  was  no  weakening  of  endeavor  as  if 
life's  duties  were  over,  and  no  loss  of  manly  courage 
or  purpose.  The  inspiration  which  comes  from  the 
things  that  are  beyond  all  present  attainments  was  still 
the  impelling  force  within  him,  and  the  movement  of 
the  mind  under  its  influence  could  not  cease. 

Professor  Whitney,  as  has  been  intimated,  was  by 
reason  of  the  chair  which  he  held  a  University  Professor, 
but  during  the  main  part  of  the  time  of  his  official  service 
he  had  a  place,  as  an  instructor  in  that  department,  in 
the  membership  of  the  Governing  Board  of  the  Scientific 
School.  The  position  of  Professor  Daniel  C.  Eaton  was 
similar,  in  this  regard,  to  that  of  Mr.  Whitney.  He 
also  held  a  University  Professorship — the  provisions  of 
its  endowment  being  such  as  to  open  his  instructions 
freely  to  students  of  different  departments  of  the  insti- 
tution. The  close  relations,  however,  of  the  science 
of  Botany — the  science  which  he  taught — to  the  other 
sciences  pursued  in  the  Sheffield  School  naturally  occa- 
sioned a  special  connection  between  him  and  its  Faculty, 
and  he  acted  for  many  years  as  one  of  the  Board.  These 
two  professorships  were  happily  suggestive  of  the  Uni- 
versity idea. 

Professor  Eaton  was  a  faithful  and  energetic  student 
in  his  branch  of  science.  In  certain  lines  of  investigation 
pertaining  to  it,  he  \vas  an  enthusiast,  and  he  had  a 
knowledge  which  was  not  surpassed,  if  indeed  it  was 
equalled,  by  any  other  scholar  in  the  country.  From  his 
407 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

early  youth  his  tastes  and  impulses  moved  him  to  the 
study  of  plants  and  flowers.  As  he  reached  the  deter- 
mining point  of  his  career,  therefore,  there  could  have 
been  little  doubt,  either  in  his  own  mind  or  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  knew  him,  as  to  what  might  fitly  be  his 
life-work,  if  only  a  favoring  fortune  should  open  the 
way  before  him.  Seven  years  after  his  graduation,  the 
way  was  thus  opened.  A  professorship  was  established 
through  the  generosity  of  friends  of  the  institution  in 
1864,  and  he  was  called  to  fill  it.  During  these  seven 
years  he  had  prepared  himself  thoroughly  for  the  duties 
which  the  position  demanded.  It  was  a  position  which 
offered  many  opportunities  and  much  happiness  for  such 
a  man,  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  he  accepted  it  with 
great  satisfaction,  as  well  as  with  abundant  hopes. 
These  hopes  were  pleasantly  and  largely  realized  during 
the  thirty-one  years  of  his  subsequent  life. 

Soon  after  his  death,  his  herbarium  and  the  botanical 
library  which  he  had  collected — both  of  much  interest 
and  value — were  generously  given  by  his  family  to  the 
Scientific  School.  This  gift  was  made  in  accordance 
with  a  thought  and  wish  on  his  own  part  which,  it  is 
believed,  he  had  long  had  in  mind.  It  will  have  a 
special  interest  as  a  memorial  of  his  affection  for  the 
University  and  of  his  life-work  in  it  and  on  its  behalf. 

Professor  Eaton  was,  in  his  undergraduate  years,  a 
member  of  the  last  College  class  with  which  I  had 
immediate  connection  while  in  the  Tutorial  office.  He 
was  at  that  time  a  faithful  student  in  the  various  lines 
of  the  course  as  then  prescribed,  but  his  special  interest 
was  doubtless  where  it  was  from  the  earlier  time  and  in 
the  later  time.  He  fitted  himself  for  educated  life  and 
strengthened  his  powers  and  tastes  in  preparation  for 
the  future.  Of  a  kindly  disposition  and  with  pleasant 
manners,  he  drew  his  friends  closely  to  himself.  He 
gave  them  his  affection  in  a  manly  way  and  they  heartily 
408 


PROFESSOR  DANIEL  C.  EATON 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

reciprocated  his  feeling.  The  gentlemanly  character 
was  always  manifest.  The  same  was  true  of  his  later 
years.  He  moved  on  from  his  youth  as  he  had  been 
in  his  youth,  only  with  the  development  of  mind  and 
heart  which  belongs  to  maturer  life.  His  career  in  the 
University  was  an  honorable  and  a  useful  one. 

Professor  Marsh  consecrated  his  powers  and  his  life 
to  science  in  his  own  department  with  even  more  re- 
markable devotion  and  persistency,  if  possible,  and  with 
a  yet  more  unbounded  enthusiasm,  than  were  manifested 
in  other  lines  of  study  and  investigation  by  Professor 
JLoomis  and  Professor  Whitney.  His  love  for  science 
and  scientific  research  was  deeply  implanted  in  his  nature. 
It  exhibited  itself  very  distinctly  and  in  a  most  uncom- 
mon way  in  his  youth,  and  became  an  impelling  force 
for  all  his  maturer  years.  I  know  of  no  more  interesting 
spectacle  in  human  life  than  that  which  is  afforded  by 
men  like  him  and  the  others,  his  colleagues,  whom  I 
have  just  mentioned,  in  this  regard.  They  pursued  the 
one  object  which  they  had  in  view  with  all  the  energy 
of  their  nature,  subordinating  everything  else  to  its 
attainment,  and  finding  their  reward  only  as  they  ad- 
vanced farther  and  yet  farther  towards  it.  Our  Uni- 
versity has  had  a  happy  fortune  indeed,  in  that  it  has 
numbered  so  many  men  of  this  high  order  in  the  circle 
of  its  scholars  and  teachers. 

Professor  Marsh's  interest  in  his  life  at  Yale,  and  in 
the  University  as  the  place  where  the  results  of  his 
studies  and  researches  might  be  permanently  treasured, 
was  equalled  only  by  that  which  he  had  in  the  work 
itself.  His  affection  for  the  institution  was  awakened 
in  his  undergraduate  years.  It  was  constant  and  abiding 
throughout  all  the  time  that  followed.  The  munificent 
gift  of  his  most  extensive  and  valuable  collections,  which 
he  made  to  the  University  in  1898,  was  a  unique  and 
409 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

remarkable  testimonial  of  the  sentiment  which  had  char- 
acterized him  from  the  beginning  of  his  professorial 
career.  By  this  gift  he  became  one  of  the  great  benefac- 
tors to  whom  the  highest  places  of  honor  must  always 
be  given  in  the  history  of  Yale.  It  is  worthy  of  notice, 
and  of  remembrance  also,  that  he  was  one  of  a  small 
number  among  the  University  officers  within  the  past 
century,  who  have  rendered  their  service  to  the  institu- 
tion freely,  without  salary. 

In  his  personality,  Professor  Marsh  was,  as  we  may 
say,  a  man  quite  by  himself.  He  was  intelligent,  with 
a  manly  intelligence,  and  a  careful  student,  patient  in 
his  researches.  But  at  the  same  time,  as  a  collector 
and  discoverer,  he  had  the  irrepressible  zeal  which  is 
characteristic  of  an  enthusiast.  Every  new  thing  in  his 
own  sphere  of  investigation  which  revealed  itself — 
everything  which  had  in  it  the  promise  of  a  revelation — 
gave  him  happiness  and  stirred  him  to  fresh  activity. 
He  would  press  forward  with  all  energy,  and  any  needed 
outlay  of  effort  or  means,  to  secure  what  it  might  have 
to  give  him.  When  he  had  made  it  his  own,  and  found 
it  of  true  value,  he  hastened  with  joyful  ardor  to  relate 
his  good  fortune  to  his  friends,  as  if  he  had  possessed 
himself  of  a  hidden  treasure.  His  manner  of  speaking 
rendered  what  he  told  more  impressive.  It  was  a  part 
of  the  man,  which  united  itself  with  his  inward  satisfac- 
tion and  the  intensity  of  his  feeling,  and  thus  brought 
the  listener,  for  the  time  at  least,  into  sympathy  with 
his  delight. 

In  conversation  with  friends  or  intelligent  visitors — 
especially  when  his  visitors  were  prominent  men  in 
scientific  lines — his  mind  was  often  wakened  to  its  high- 
est activity  and  interest.  He  showed  himself,  at  such 
times,  to  be  full  of  information,  gained  alike  through 
his  own  researches  and  as  the  result  of  his  intercourse 
with  scholars  in  different  parts  of  the  world.  He  had 
410 


, 


PROFESSOR   OTHNIEL   C.    MARSH 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

travelled  extensively  and,  wherever  he  went,  had  formed 
the  acquaintance  of  those  whom  it  was  most  desirable 
to  know.  He  thus  had  abundance  of  anecdote,  as  well 
as  of  learning,  and  could  make  use  of  whatever  he  pos- 
sessed for  the  entertainment  or  instruction  of  his  guests. 
No  undue  prominence,  however,  was  assumed  for  him- 
self in  such  friendly  interviews;  he  was  as  ready  to 
listen,  as  to  speak,  and  was  ever  with  open  mind  towards 
new  knowledge,  from  whomsoever  it  might  come. 

In  his  attitude  and  in  his  manner  of  expressing  him- 
self, a  certain  formality  was  characteristic  of  him. 
Especially  was  this  manifest  in  cases  where  he  sought 
an  interview  with  others  on  matters  of  business,  or  on 
subjects  of  interest  with  respect  to  his  own  particular 
work.  The  slight  and  somewhat  peculiar  hesitation  in 
his  utterance  rendered  this  formality  more  conspicuous. 
I  was  always  struck  with  this  singularity  of  manner 
when  he  called  upon  me,  as  he  occasionally  did,  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  some  minor  appropriation  of  money 
for  his  department  of  the  Museum,  or  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  new  teacher  into  its  service,  or  of  some  change 
of  arrangements  which  would  aid  in  enlarging  its  work. 
Whatever  the  object  might  be,  the  manner  of  the  man 
was  the  same.  It  was  as  if  we  had  been  two  ministers 
of  state  having  little  acquaintance  with  each  other,  who 
had  met  for  the  settlement  of  some  great  question  of 
public  concern.  All  was  serious  with  a  dignified 
solemnity,  and  measured  with  a  diplomatic  deliberate- 
ness.  My  own  bearing  was,  as  of  necessity,  determined 
by  his.  One  could  not  talk  after  the  ordinary  method, 
and  with  the  freedom  of  a  common  conversation,  when 
the  other  party  in  the  interview  seemed  to  place  the 
subject  and  the  discussion  on  a  plane  so  much  higher. 
I  was  not  able  fully  to  equal  him,  but  my  approaches 
to  his  standard  were,  for  the  time  and  by  reason  of 
effort,  so  near  to  it  that  I  think  he  was  satisfied.  I  could, 
411 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

indeed,  be  as  immovably  serious  in  my  look,  as  he  could 
himself  be.  This  is  a  gift  for  which  I  have  sometimes 
felt  that  I  ought  to  be  grateful.  My  look,  also,  in  a 
measure,  solemnized  my  speech;  and  so,  with  the 
friendly  spirit  which  we  always  had,  we  moved  on  with 
a  reasonable  success.  But  I  used  often  to  think,  just 
after  such  an  interview  had  closed,  of  the  possibilities  of 
the  thoughts  on  the  two  sides  respecting  it.  Did  either 
0f  the  two  parties  quite  understand  the  impression  pro- 
duced on  the  mind  of  the  other?  Was  the  look  of  either 
quite  the  same  that  it  had  been  a  few  moments  before? 
It  is  enough,  no  doubt,  to  know  that  all  is  well  that 
ends  well.  The  Professor  usually  gained,  as  the  result 
of  the  interview,  what  he  desired — always,  if  I  remem- 
ber aright,  when  it  was  within  the  power  of  the  Uni- 
versity to  grant  it.  Such  idiosyncrasies  made  the  man 
more  interesting.  They  certainly  gave  him  an  indi- 
viduality which  distinguished  him  from  others. 

In  his  inmost  thinking — the  deepest  life  of  his  man- 
hood— my  belief  is  that  he  always  lived  apart  from  those 
about  him.  He  thought  after  his  own  manner,  and  in 
an  independent  way,  and  I  doubt  whether  even  his  most 
intimate  friends  penetrated  the  recesses,  or  really  in 
any  measure  understood  him  in  that  central  region  of 
the  soul  where  it  turns  towards  the  unseen  things.  I 
question,  indeed,  whether  he  had  intimate  friends,  in 
the  fullness  of  intimacy  which  is  known  by  men  whose 
inner  life  opens  itself  with  greater  readiness.  When  we 
pass  onward  to  what  may  be  hereafter  the  clearer  revela- 
tions of  the  soul's  deepest  self,  we  may  find  that  the 
things  which  we  did  not  see  before  in  others  were  unseen 
only  because  of  the  limitations  of  our  vision,  or  because 
of  the  veil  which  the  very  differences  of  nature  placed 
between  ourselves  and  them.  There  was  a  solitariness 
of  this  character  in  Professor  Marsh's  life,  notwith- 
standing the  abundant  outwardness  in  its  activities  and 
412 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

its  intercourse  with  men,  which,  as  I  observed  or  thought 
of  him,  was  very  suggestive  to  me.  The  words  "we 
know  in  part" — true  of  all  spheres  of  knowledge  as  they 
may  be — are  equally  true,  or  even  more  so,  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  soul.  For  himself,  I  think,  this  character- 
istic of  his  nature  lessened  in  some  degree  the  happiness 
of  his  life,  and  gave  him  sometimes  the  feeling  that  he 
was  a  lonely  man ; — a  feeling  respecting  him  which  those 
of  his  friends  who  visited  his  house — so  rich  in  its  in- 
terior and  so  beautiful  in  its  location — after  his  final 
departure  from  it,  must  have  found  arising  within  them- 
selves. 

He  made  the  University  the  heir  of  his  entire  estate, 
with  the  exception  of  a  moderate  sum  connected  with 
a  single  bequest,  and  thus  completed,  as  it  were,  the 
gift  to  science  at  Yale  which  he  had  offered  previously 
in  his  long-continued  service  and  his  rich  and  great  col- 
lections. Surely,  as  has  been  already  said,  it  is  not  the 
teachers  only  who  make  the  University,  or  advance  its 
life  and  usefulness.  All  the  men  who  work  in  it,  and 
for  it,  are  helpers  in  the  upbuilding  of  what  all  alike 
desire,  and  the  history  of  the  century  includes  in  its 
record  a  company  of  scholars  and  workers  having  a 
variety  of  gifts,  but  the  same  spirit. 

Professor  Lyman  was  connected  with  the  Scientific 
School  as  its  instructor  in  Physics  or  Astronomy  for 
thirty  years.  His  career  presents  another  instance, 
kindred  to  those  of  Whitney,  Marsh,  and  others  whom 
I  have  mentioned,  of  a  life  which  realized  in  its  later 
period  the  aptitudes  and  desires  that  were  manifest  even 
in  boyhood.  I  venture  to  borrow  a  few  words,  as  in- 
dicating this,  from  a  brief  record  in  the  biographical 
story  of  the  Yale  Class  of  1837,  which  was  prepared  in 
connection  with  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  their  gradua- 
tion. 

413 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

"Before  he  was  nine  years  old,"  this  record  says  of 
him,  "he  evinced  considerable  mechanical  ingenuity, 
making  small  wind-mills,  water-wheels,  and  other  toys  of 
the  kind.  He  also  began  to  show  a  great  interest  in 
Astronomy  and  the  kindred  sciences,  which  was  first 
awakened  by  an  intense  curiosity  to  know  how  a  common 
almanac  is  made,  and  how  the  stars  look  through  a 
telescope.  This  latter  desire  was  first  gratified  when  he 
saw  the  Pleiades  through  a  rough  telescope,  which  he 
extemporized  from  his  mother's  spectacles,  a  small  burn- 
ing glass,  and  a  yardstick,  of  which  he  said  in  later  life: 
'I  never  can  forget  the  delight  with  which  I  saw,  for  the 
first  time,  this  cluster  expand  into  a  large  number  of 
brighter  stars.' 

"When  he  was  about  thirteen  years  of  age,  a  copy  of 
Ferguson's  Astronomy  fell  into  his  hands,  and  was 
studied  with  great  interest.  From  that  time  until  he 
was  sixteen,  he  spent  most  of  his  spare  time  either  study- 
ing, without  assistance,  or  in  a  little  tool  shop  of  his 
father's  constructing  astronomical  and  other  instruments, 
which  he  had  never  seen  except  in  the  diagrams  of 
books.  Among  these  instruments,  which  were  of  course 
mainly  of  wood,  were  a  quadrant,  a  sextant,  a  terrestrial 
and  a  celestial  globe,  an  orrery,  an  eclipsareon,  a  solar 
microscope,  and  many  others.  He  also  constructed  a 
reflecting  Herschelian  telescope,  four  feet  long,  which 
enabled  him  to  show  Jupiter's  satellites  and  belts, 
Saturn's  rings,  the  moon,  and  other  celestial  objects,  to 
the  country  folks,  who  came  from  miles  around  to  look 
through  it. 

"He  computed  all  the  eclipses  for  fifteen  years  to 
come,  and  made  almanacs  for  1830  and  1831.  In  order 
to  give  the  places  of  the  planets  in  these  almanacs  (never 
having  seen  a  nautical  almanac  or  tables  of  the  planets), 
he  computed  tables  for  himself  from  the  elements  of 
414 


PROFESSOR   CHESTER   S.    LYMAN 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  planets'  orbits,  as  given  in  a  small  book  by  Blair 
on  Natural  Philosophy." 

When  we  consider  that  all  this  was  the  work  of  a 
boy  born  in  the  country,  and  having  only  the  oppor- 
tunities of  a  common  country  school  of  those  days,  who 
was  not  yet  sixteen  years  of  age,  we  can  hardly  question 
the  meaning  of  his  gifts  as  bearing  upon  his  life-work. 

His  choice  of  a  profession,  however,  was  made  in 
early  youth  and  was  determined,  not  by  the  natural 
tastes  and  inclinations  of  his  mind,  but  as  the  result  of 
his  religious  convictions.  In  accordance  with  this  choice 
he  studied  theology  after  his  graduation  and,  in  due 
time,  became  the  pastor  of  a  church  in  New  Britain, 
Connecticut.  Not  improbably  he  might  have  continued 
in  the  pastoral  work  throughout  his  life,  had  he  not 
been  constrained  to  withdraw  from  it  by  reason  of  a 
failure  of  his  health  when  he  had  been  settled  in  the 
ministry  only  two  years.  His  career  was  a  varied  one 
for  fourteen  years  after  this  time — his  residence  having 
been,  during  a  considerable  part  of  the  geriod,  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands  and  in  California,  and  his  occupations 
having  been  largely  in  the  sphere  of  teaching,  or  of 
scientific  studies  and  pursuits.  In  1859  he  was  called  to 
his  professorship  in  our  School  of  Science.  That  he 
would  have  been  a  useful  and  devoted  minister,  if  he 
could  have  carried  out  his  original  purpose,  may  not 
be  questioned.  The  early  beginnings  gave  promise  of 
the  future.  But  it  was  not  the  Divine  appointment  for 
life  for  him,  and  we  may  see  why  it  was  not.  Happily 
the  sphere  for  which  he  was  peculiarly  fitted,  and  in 
which  he  at  length  found  his  appropriate  duties,  was 
one  where  all  his  powers  could  find  their  best  exercise, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  there  was  large  opportunity 
for  moral  and  Christian  influence.  By  his  character,  as 
well  as  by  direct  instruction  and  personal  helpfulness,  he 
was  able  to  do  much  good  to  the  young  men  whom  he 

415 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

met  in  their  educational  years.  In  some  very  appreciable 
degree,  therefore,  he  was  enabled  to  accomplish  the  ends 
for  which  he  gave  himself  to  the  ministry  at  the  outset, 
and  many  of  his  pupils  acknowledge  their  obligation  to 
him  for  this  reason,  as  well  as  for  the  value  of  his 
instruction  in  his  special  department  of  study. 

Professor  Lyman's  call  to  his  chair  at  Yale  was  given 
him  one  year  later  than  my  own  to  my  professorship 
came  to  me.  My  personal  knowledge  of  him  began 
after  we  were  thus  united  in  the  Faculty  of  the  institu- 
tion. As  our  special  work,  however,  was  in  different 
schools  of  instruction,  we  did  not  have  the  opportunities 
for  familiar  acquaintance  which  were  open  to  others, 
whose  daily  duties  brought  them  more  closely  together. 
Our  meetings  were  only  occasional,  and  yet  an  associa- 
tion of  thirty  years  could  not  but  give  me  some  true 
understanding  of  his  mind  and  character.  His  intel- 
lectual powers  were  of  a  high  order.  Their  manifesta- 
tion of  themselves  was  especially  conspicuous  in  the  lines 
of  scientific  inquiry  and  research.  Along  these  lines 
he  moved  most  readily  and  naturally.  But  he  did  not 
limit  himself  to  a  single  sphere.  He  was  interested  in 
a  wide  range  of  subjects.  He  gave  his  attentive  con- 
sideration and  study  to  questions  of  political  life  and 
national  well-being,  and  had  his  own  well-matured  views 
with  reference  to  them,  which  guided  him  in  his  personal 
action.  In  discussions  respecting  educational  matters 
he  was  ready  to  participate  and,  whenever  he  did  so,  he 
exhibited  the  results  of  careful  and  independent  thought. 
As  a  thinker  on  theological  topics  he  was  characterized 
by  a  Christian  conservatism,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time, 
by  a  large-minded  and  healthful  liberality.  His  special 
interest  in  theology  had  its  origin,  no  doubt,  in  his  early 
studies  in  preparation  for  the  ministry,  but  his  mind  and 
character  alike  were  of  such  an  order  that,  whatever 
416 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

his  work  in  his  daily  life,  he  must  have  been  always 
moved  to  thoughtfulness  on  this  great  subject. 

There  was  in  him  a  certain  openness  to  investigation 
and  a  readiness  for  a  measure  of  faith  in  new  spheres  of 
thought,  which  were  possibly  akin  to,  if  not  more  closely 
connected  with,  the  inventive  element  in  his  mental 
nature.  He  was  hospitable  in  his  thinking  in  relation 
to  the  phenomena  of  mesmerism  and,  afterwards,  those 
of  spiritualism,  though  he  never  put  himself  prominently 
forward  in  connection  with  these  matters.  He  held  his 
mind  in  readiness  for  whatever  revelations  of  truth 
might  be  given;  not  rejecting,  as  many  about  him  did, 
all  evidences  or  proofs  which  made  a  claim  for  them- 
selves, but  accepting  them  according  to  what  he  esteemed 
to  be  their  real  value,  and  comforting  himself  with  the 
thought  and  hope  of  new  and  yet  clearer  truth.  Thus 
he  found  much  pleasure  in  his  meditations,  while  he  was 
occupied  with  his  scientific  researches  and  his  work  of 
instruction. 

In  conversation  and  discussion  with  others,  he  had  a 
deliberateness  which  seemed  as  if,  perchance,  the  result 
of  the  careful  working  out  of  his  convictions  under  the 
influence  of  the  thoughts  of  the  hour.  He  was,  however, 
always  willing  to  contribute  whatever  of  wisdom  or 
knowledge  he  had  at  command,  to  the  end  that  the  sub- 
ject in  question  might  be  brought  into  the  clearest  light. 
His  kindly  spirit,  also,  rendered  his  daily  intercourse 
with  friends,  and  the  chance  talk  with  others  whom  he 
met  less  frequently,  attractive;  and  all  were  glad  to 
know  him. 


417 


XXII. 

Professors  McLaughlin,  Edward  J.  Phelps,  Salisbury, 
and  Others. 

IN  contrast  to  these  seven  scholars  whom  I  have 
thus  mentioned — men  whose  life-work  in  the  in- 
stitution was  long  continued  and  to  whom  its  end- 
ing came  only  in  advanced  years — Professor  McLaugh- 
lin, who  died  in  1893,  was  at  that  time  a  graduate  of 
but  ten  years'  standing.  His  brief  history  was  an  un- 
common one,  in  that  he  was  called  to  enter  upon  the 
work  of  instruction  in  the  College  when  he  had  been 
graduated  only  twelve  months.  The  demands  of  the 
department  of  English  Literature  seemed  then  to  render 
an  addition  to  the  teaching  force  necessary,  and  the 
question  as  to  meeting  these  demands  was  pressed  upon 
the  authorities  for  decision.  Mr.  McLaughlin  had  so 
greatly  commended  himself  to  his  instructors  during  his 
course  as  a  student,  that  they  were  led  to  urge  his  ap- 
pointment to  the  new  position.  In  view  of  their  favor- 
able judgment,  the  Corporation  took  action,  and  the  ap- 
pointment was  made.  The  success  of  the  young  in- 
structor was  very  noticeable,  even  from  the  outset.  It 
became  increasingly  manifest  as  the  years  moved  onward. 
He  showed  himself  to  be  a  true  and  cultured  scholar 
in  the  field  of  literary  studies.  At  the  same  time,  he 
exhibited  a  very  special  power  of  awakening  and  stim- 
ulating the  minds  of  his  best  pupils.  He  led  them  by 
his  influence  to  an  appreciation  of  literature.  He  in- 
spired them  with  a  genuine  love  for  it.  His  private 
work  with  such  pupils  was  as  helpful  as  was  that  of  the 
418 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

lecture-room,  and  many  of  those  whom  he  thus  aided 
were  greatly  quickened. 

After  a  few  years  of  service,  he  received,  in  recogni- 
tion of  his  ability  and  of  his  usefulness  as  a  teacher,  an 
election  to  an  Assistant  Professorship  in  his  department. 
This  position  he  held  until  1893,  when  he  was  appointed 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  and  Belles  Lettres.  His  sphere 
of  work  and  duty  for  a  long  life-time  seemed  to  be 
determined.  It  was  the  sphere  most  congenial  to  his 
feeling  and  most  adapted  to  his  mental  powers.  Every- 
thing appeared  to  be  opening  before  him  in  the  happiest 
way,  with  a  promise  of  rich  results  in  the  future  for 
himself  and  also  for  the  College.  But  just  at  the  coming 
of  what  all  who  knew  him  thought  to  be  the  hour  of 
youthful  fruition  and  abundant  hope,  a  disease  which 
proved  fatal  seized  upon  him,  and  he  died  only  a  few 
weeks  after  the  announcement  of  his  election  to  the  new 
Professorship  had  been  made. 

Two  other  members  of  the  professorial  body  in  the 
University  were  removed  by  death  within  the  period 
of  which  I  am  now  writing — Professor  Johnson  T.  Platt 
of  the  Law  School,  and  Professor  James  K.  Thacher  of 
the  Medical  Department.  The  former  died  in  1890, 
and  the  latter  in  1891.  Professor  Platt  was  one  of  the 
three  young  lawyers — the  others  being  Judge  Baldwin 
and  Professor  Robinson,  now  of  Washington,  D.  C. — 
who,  in  1869,  undertook  the  work  of  the  renewed  up- 
building of  the  Department  of  Law,  which  had,  in  the 
preceding  ten  years  or  more,  lost  much  of  its  earlier 
success  and  diminished  largely  in  its  numbers.  To  these 
young  men  the  first  beginnings  of  all  that  followed  were 
due,  since  they,  in  a  time  of  much  discouragement  and 
many  apprehensions  on  the  part  of  the  central  au- 
thorities of  the  institution,  voluntarily  and  of  their 
own  impulse  took  upon  themselves  the  task  and  the 
419 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

responsibilities  that  it  involved.  In  the  year  1872,  they 
were  appointed  professors,  and  Professor  Wayland,  the 
present  Dean  of  the  school,  was  called  into  association 
with  them.  From  that  time  onward,  the  new  life  was 
developed — gradually  at  first,  but  more  rapidly  and  fully 
afterwards — and  confidence  in  the  future  increasingly 
took  the  place  of  doubts.  Professor  Platt  lived  long 
enough  to  see  the  fulfillment  of  his  hopes  in  large 
measure,  but  not  long  enough  to  enjoy  all  that  has  now 
been  realized.  He  was  an  earnest  worker  in  connection 
with  his  colleagues,  and  a  faithful  instructor  of  the 
students  whom  he  met  in  his  classes. 

Professor  Thacher  was  the  eldest  son  of  Professor 
Thomas  A.  Thacher.  He  was  a  graduate  of  the  College 
Class  of  1868.  His  studies  in  the  earlier  years  following 
his  graduation  were  carried  forward  in  other  lines  than 
those  of  Medical  Science,  but  he  subsequently  devoted 
his  energies  with  so  much  intelligence  and  earnestness 
to  his  special  work,  that  he  won  for  himself  very  high 
esteem,  and  was  regarded  as  a  scholar  and  instructor  of 
great  value  to  the  school.  His  life  in  his  professorship 
— that  of  Physiology — was  limited  to  the  period  when 
the  school  was  at  its  lowest  point  in  the  number  of  its 
students,  but  it  covered  the  eleven  and  a  half  years, 
from  1879  to  the  early  part  of  1891,  during  which  much 
was  effected  in  the  way  of  advancement  in  medical 
education,  as  well  as  of  preparation  for  the  success  which 
began  to  make  itself  manifest  not  long  afterwards. 

My  story  of  the  years  at  Yale  is  intended  to  reach  its 
close  in  June,  1899,  when  I  retired  from  my  official 
connection  with  the  University.  I  have  therefore  limited 
myself  in  what  I  have  said  on  these  immediately  preced- 
ing pages  to  commemorative  words  respecting  the  pro- 
fessors whose  career  ended  before  that  date.  There 
were,  however,  four  others,  in  remembrance  of  whom 
420 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

I  feel  that  I  may,  in  accordance  with  my  earnest  desire, 
add  a  few  brief  sentences,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  a 
large  part  of  their  work — in  the  case  of  two  of  them,  the 
whole  of  it — was  fulfilled  within  the  years  of  my  Presi- 
dency, and  because  the  closing  of  that  work  was  so  nearly 
coincident  with  the  ending  of  those  years. 

These  four  gentlemen  were  Professor  Jules  Luquiens, 
of  the  Academical  Department,  Professors  Moses  C. 
White  and  James  Campbell,  of  the  Medical  School,  and 
Professor  Edward  J.  Phelps,  who  was  connected  with 
two  departments — the  Academical  College  and  the  Law 
School. 

Professor  Luquiens  was  a  native  of  Switzerland,  and 
was  graduated  as  Bachelor  of  Divinity  at  the  University 
of  Lausanne  in  1866.  Not  long  after  his  graduation 
he  came  to  America.  In  1 873,  at  the  close  of  a  course  of 
study  at  Yale,  he  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy.  During  his  residence  here  he  won  for  him- 
self the  regard  of  the  professors  under  whose  guidance 
he  carried  forward  his  work,  and  when  he  left  the  in- 
stitution he  bore  with  him  not  only  their  best  wishes, 
but  their  confident  hopes  for  his  success  and  usefulness 
in  his  subsequent  career.  He  accepted  an  invitation  to 
an  Associate  Professorship  of  Modern  Languages  in 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology.  In  this 
office  he  remained  for  several  years,  but  after  the  resig- 
nation of  the  Street  Professorship  by  Professor  Knapp 
he  was  called  back  to  Yale  in  1892.  From  that  time 
until  his  death  in  1899  he  filled  most  acceptably  the 
chair  of  the  Romance  Languages  and  Literature  in  our 
University. 

Professor  Luquiens  was  a  thoroughly  equipped  and 
able  teacher.  The  successive  classes  of  his  pupils  were 
united  in  their  testimony  respecting  the  faithfulness  with 
which  he  discharged  all  his  duties,  as  well  as  the  interest 
which  he  excited  in  their  minds  as  he  led  them  forward 
421 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  their  studies.  As  a  man  he  was  of  the  highest  char- 
acter and  was  possessed  of  vigorous  intellectual  powers. 
He  had,  however,  a  modest  estimate  of  himself,  in 
consequence  of  which  he  was  indisposed  to  press  his 
views  with  demonstrative  energy  upon  those  who  were 
in  conference  with  him,  or  to  manifest  any  ungracious 
feeling,  as  some  men  do,  in  yielding  to  the  opinions  of 
others.  In  his  relations  to  his  colleagues  the  gentleness 
and  friendliness  of  his  nature  were  at  all  times  con- 
spicuous. As  he  united  with  them  in  the  work  of  the 
University,  he  gave  himself  with  unselfish  devotion  to 
the  common  interests  and  thus  showed  the  generosity 
of  spirit  which  characterized  him.  By  his  manly  excel- 
lence he  won  the  esteem  and  affection  of  all  who  were 
associated  with  him  in  the  company  of  scholars.  The 
period  of  his  service  with  us  was  a  brief  one,  extending 
over  only  seven  years,  but  his  influence  in  his  own  de- 
partment of  instruction  we  may  hope  will  remain.  It 
was  a  happy  fortune  for  the  institution  that  it  had,  even 
for  a  time,  his  presence  in  one  of  its  Faculties,  and  it  is 
a  pleasant  thought  for  myself  personally  that  the  years 
of  his  service  were  included  within  my  own  official  term. 

Professors  White  and  Campbell  were  esteemed  mem- 
bers of  the  Medical  Faculty — the  former  having  held 
a  professorship  for  thirty-three  years  and  the  latter  for 
thirteen  years.  Dr.  White  graduated  as  Bachelor  of 
Arts  at  Wesleyan  University,  in  1845.  He  pursued 
medical  studies  in  our  own  institution,  and  received  his 
degree  in  Medicine  here  in  1854.  For  a  few  years  he 
was  engaged  in  the  foreign  missionary  work  in  China, 
but  soon  after  his  return  to  his  home,  in  the  year  1867 
he  was  offered  the  chair  of  Pathology  and  Microscopy 
at  Yale,  which  he  accepted.  During  his  entire  career 
in  New  Haven  he  was  ardently  devoted  to  his  profession 
on  its  scientific  side.  By  reason  of  this  fact  he  took  a 
422 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

prominent  position  even  from  the  early  days  of  his 
professorial  life,  and  he  soon  became  an  authority  in 
his  more  special  sphere.  In  his  outward  appearance, 
he  seemed  always  to  retain  the  characteristic  marks  of 
a  serious-minded  minister  or  missionary,  but  those  who 
came  into  nearer  association  with  him  saw  at  once  the 
enthusiasm  of  his  mind  for  scientific  investigation  and 
his  ability  which  fitted  him  for  his  chosen  work.  In 
an  unusual  measure  he  kept  alive  his  interest  in  his 
studies  during  his  far-advanced  years.  He  held  his 
professorship  until  he  had  already  passed  the  age  of 
eighty,  but  when  he  laid  aside  its  duties,  and  even  until 
after  the  beginning  of  the  illness  which  proved  fatal,  he 
looked  forward  earnestly  and  hopefully  to  new  efforts. 
He  had  no  thought  of  an  ending  of  his  personal  work- 
ing, except  as  life  itself  should  end.  The  term  of  his 
service  in  the  school  was  of  longer  continuance  than 
that  of  any  other  of  its  professors  since  its  establishment 
in  1813,  with  the  exception  of  three — two  of  whom,  Dr. 
Jonathan  Knight  and  Dr.  Eli  Ives,  were  members  of  its 
earliest  Faculty  and  occupied  their  chairs  of  instruction 
for  forty  and  fifty  years,  and  the  third  is  Dr.  Charles 
A.  Lindsley,  now  Professor  Emeritus,  who  has  been 
connected  with  the  school  since  1860. 

Dr.  Campbell's  official  term,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  much  more  limited  in  its  duration.  He  held  his 
professorship  from  1886  to  1899.  In  the  latter  year 
he  resigned  the  office,  and  very  soon  afterwards  he  died. 
He  was  a  generous  friend  and  kindly  benefactor  of  the 
School,  earnest  and  efficient  in  his  efforts  for  its  develop- 
ment and  growth,  and  in  full  sympathy  with  the  best 
ideas  of  the  time  in  respect  to  the  higher  standard  of 
medical  education.  By  reason  of  his  professional  work 
in  another  city,  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  have  quite 
as  close  and  constant  connection  with  the  ordinary  life  of 
the  School  as  his  associates  in  its  Faculty  had.  These 

423 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

associates,  however,  and  also  the  friends  of  the  School 
who  were  deeply  interested  in  its  welfare  and  most 
watchful  of  its  progress,  were  appreciative  of  the  service 
which  he  rendered  to  it,  as  well  as  of  his  ability  as  a 
man.  His  life  came  to  its  end  while  he  was  yet  in  his 
prime,  but  he  was  faithful  to  his  profession  and  suc- 
cessful in  it  through  all  his  working  years. 

Hon.  Edward  J.  Phelps  was  appointed  Kent  Profes- 
sor of  Law  in  the  Academical  Department  in  1881. 
From  the  beginning  of  his  official  term  he  not  only  ful- 
filled the  more  immediate  duties  of  this  professorship 
by  giving  instruction  to  undergraduate  students  in  their 
Senior  year,  but  also  stood  in  close  relations  of  sympathy 
to  the  Faculty  of  the  Law  School.  After  two  or  three 
years  he  became,  at  the  request  of  that  Faculty,  a  lec- 
turer in  their  courses,  and  in  this  way  his  presence  in  the 
University  was  rendered  most  helpful  to  students  who 
were  more  immediately  and  directly  preparing  themselves 
for  the  work  of  the  legal  profession.  For  both  classes  of 
pupils  he  had  a  special  attractiveness  as  a  teacher.  His 
clearness  of  statement,  the  felicity  of  expression  which 
was  characteristic  of  him,  the  enthusiasm  for  the  study 
of  the  law  that  was  always  evident,  his  gracious  and  gen- 
tlemanly manner,  and  the  friendliness  and  dignity  of  his 
whole  bearing,  awakened  the  interest  of  his  hearers  and 
made  them  most  attentive  listeners  to  his  lectures.  He 
was  himself  a  true  lawyer  of  the  best  type.  His  personal 
example,  as  well  as  his  instruction,  moved  his  pupils  to 
set  before  themselves  the  highest  ideals. 

During  the  first  Presidential  term  of  President  Cleve- 
land, from  1885  to  1889,  Professor  Phelps  represented 
our  Government  as  Minister  to  the  Court  of  Great 
Britain.  By  reason  of  this  official  position,  he  was  neces- 
sarily separated  from  the  University  throughout  the 
whole  of  the  period,  but  on  his  return  to  America  he  re- 
424 


PROFESSOR  EDWARD  J.  PHELPS 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

sumed  his  professorial  duties.  From  1889  until  his 
death,  which  occurred  near  the  beginning  of  1900, 
though  the  special  work  connected  with  his  chair  was 
still  in  the  College,  his  relations  to  the  Law  Department 
were  much  closer  than  those  which  he  had  previously 
sustained,  and  he  gave  to  that  department  a  large  share 
of  his  time  and  effort.  It  was  with  the  greatest  pleasure 
and  satisfaction  that  we  welcomed  him  again  to  our 
Yale  fellowship.  He  was  such  a  cultured  gentleman, 
and  so  friendly  in  his  attitude,  that  all  who  enjoyed  in 
any  measure  the  privilege  of  association  with  him  es- 
teemed themselves  most  fortunate.  In  conversation  his 
large  knowledge  and  experience  rendered  him  very  help- 
ful, as  well  as  agreeable,  to  those  who  met  him,  and  es- 
pecially to  such  as  were  in  the  intimacy  of  his  friendship. 
As  a  member  of  our  University  Faculty  he  manifested 
always  the  true  spirit  of  the  institution.  He  believed  in 
the  ideas  of  education  which  it  represents  and  gave  his 
heartiest  support  to  it  in  all  its  life.  Though  not  a  grad- 
uate of  the  College,  he  had  pursued  his  studies  in  prepa- 
ration for  his  profession  for  a  considerable  time  in  our 
Law  School.  In  this  way  he  had  become  familiar  with 
its  system  of  instruction  at  that  period.  He  had  also 
gained  inspiration  from  its  teachers  and  had  formed 
friendly  relations  with  its  students.  Moreover,  the  Yale 
spirit  had  come  to  him  by  inheritance,  as  his  father  grad- 
uated here  under  the  administration  of  the  first  President 
Dwight,  and  the  early  family  associations  were  such  as 
to  awaken  interest  in  this  College.  He  was  thus  no 
stranger  to  us  as  he  came  to  our  Faculty,  though  he  had 
lived  in  Vermont  and  had  received  his  college  education 
at  Middlebury  College  in  that  State. 

The  date  of  his  college  graduation  was  1840.  At 
that  time,  and  for  ten  years  or  more  afterwards,  his 
father  represented  his  State  in  Washington  as  a  member 
of  the  United  States  Senate.  Within  these  years  the 

425 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

younger  Mr.  Phelps  had,  accordingly,  the  opportunity 
of  becoming  acquainted  with  the  eminent  men  then  at 
the  seat  of  Government — among  the  most  eminent  who 
have  ever  been  in  that  interesting  center  of  our  national 
life.  From  Mr.  Webster  and  other  leaders  associated 
with  him,  he  received  much  inspiring  influence,  and  he 
was  never  weary  of  talking  of  them  to  his  friends  of  the 
younger  generation.  In  his  own  personality  he  had  a 
happy  union  of  the  past  and  the  present.  The  past  min- 
gled with  the  present  by  its  inspiration,  but  did  not  over- 
power it.  It  imparted  a  richness  and  grace  to  the  life  of 
the  man,  yet  the  man  himself  was  a  living,  earnest  per- 
sonality of  the  present.  He  was  a  manly  citizen  of  the 
republic  of  to-day,  honoring  it  by  his  life  and  devoted 
to  its  highest  interests.  As  a  citizen  in  the  common- 
wealth of  learning,  he  had  the  ideal  of  culture  ever  in  his 
mind  and  he  realized  it  in  himself  in  wonderful  measure. 
Any  university  might  well  have  been  proud  to  enroll  his 
name  in  its  list  of  scholars  and  of  educated  Christian 
gentlemen.  The  Yale  brotherhood  had  a  blessing  of  no 
ordinary  character  in  his  life  at  our  University  for  so 
many  years.  To  me  his  presence  here  and  my  friendly 
acquaintance  with  him  are  delightful  memories. 

I  give  myself,  at  this  point,  the  privilege  of  adding  to 
my  brief  commemorative  words  respecting  these  asso- 
ciates in  the  Board  of  Instruction  a  few  sentences  with 
reference  to  two  gentlemen  who  were  very  near  to  us, 
though  not  of  our  number. 

Professor  Edward  E.  Salisbury  had  not  been  con- 
nected with  the  Faculty  of  the  University  since  the  year 
1856,  but  his  relation  to  it  as  a  constant  benefactor,  and 
as  a  member  of  the  chief  committee  of  the  Library 
and  of  the  Council  of  the  Art  School,  was  so  close  that 
we  all  looked  upon  him  as  one  of  the  inner  circle  of  the 
Yale  fraternity.  The  appeal  which  the  institution  made 
426 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  his  filial  affection  or  to  his  generosity  always  met  a 
kindly  response. 

As  a  scholar  he  rendered  it  a  great  service  through 
his  deep  interest  and  large  attainments  in  the  sphere  of 
philology.  He  was  the  first  to  introduce  and  provide 
for  Oriental  studies  in  the  College.  As  a  result  of  this 
fact,  as  well  as  by  reason  of  his  large-minded  apprecia- 
tion of  learning  and  scholarship,  he  sympathized  and 
heartily  co-operated  with  Dr.  Woolsey  and  others  in  the 
matter  of  the  organization  of  courses  for  graduate  stu- 
dents. We  may  indeed  regard  the  establishment  of  his 
professorship  and  the  opening  of  instruction  in  his  de- 
partment as,  in  a  sense,  the  earliest  beginning  of  this 
more  definite  organization.  What  he  did  at  a  later  time 
in  relation  to  the  chair  of  Sanscrit  I  have  already  men- 
tioned when  writing  of  Professor  Whitney.  His  action 
in  this  regard  was  certainly  as  praiseworthy  as  it  was 
unique.  Not  content  with  a  voluntary  acceptance  at  the 
outset  of  a  professorship  for  himself  without  salary,  he 
held  himself  ready,  when  he  had  found  a  pupil  of  whose 
fitness  to  be  his  associate  he  was  assured,  to  offer  the 
Corporation  an  endowment  which  would  secure  his  serv- 
ices, and  to  assign  him  a  portion  of  his  work.  And  when 
years  had  passed  and  the  younger  scholar  had  attained 
the  eminence  which  in  his  own  mind  he  had  prophesied 
for  him,  he  willingly  added  to  his  gifts  according  to  the 
demands  and  possibilities  of  the  new  era.  The  institu- 
tion of  learning  which  has  within  its  gates  or  in  close 
connection  with  its  life  men  who  are  animated  by  such  a 
spirit  may  well  congratulate  itself,  for  it  enjoys  what 
may  fitly  be  regarded  as  a  rare  good  fortune. 

To  the  University  Library  Professor  Salisbury  gave 
most  kindly  thought  through  all  his  long  career.  His 
interest  in  it  as  having  in  itself  one  of  the  central  forces 
of  the  life  of  the  institution  was  very  early  awakened. 
In  the  year  1843,  when  the  building  now  called  the  Old 

427 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Library  was  erected,  the  donation  received  from  him 
was  one  of  the  largest,  if  not  indeed  the  largest  of  all 
that  were  made  by  the  friends  of  the  College.  In  1870 
he  presented  to  the  Corporation  the  exceedingly  valuable 
collection  of  Oriental  books  which  he  had  gathered  in 
many  previous  years,  and  soon  afterward  he  provided  a 
fund  the  income  of  which  should  be  devoted  to  securing 
the  additions  to  it  that  might  be  desired.  In  later  years, 
still  further  gifts  for  this  collection  were  made  by  him, 
which  increased  its  value  and  usefulness,  and  in  his  final 
disposition  of  his  property  he  manifested  his  continued 
interest  in  the  department  of  studies  and  literature  to 
which  he  had  specially  devoted  his  life.  These,  how- 
ever, were  only  prominent  instances  of  his  generosity. 
The  donations  of  a  less  marked  character,  which  were 
so  often  repeated  that  they  were  looked  for  with  confi- 
dence, had  a  value  appreciated  most  fully  by  those  who 
were  in  immediate  charge  of  the  interests  of  the  Library 
or  were  intimately  acquainted  with  its  history  and  needs. 

The  interest  which  he  had  in  Art  was  also  very  con- 
spicuous. He  was  among  the  first  to  welcome  the  idea 
of  the  establishment  of  a  School  of  the  Fine  Arts  in 
connection  with  the  University.  The  originators  of  the 
school  found  in  him  a  friend  who  heartily  sympathized 
with  their  views  and  purpose  and  one  to  whom  they 
could  look  as  having  a  spirit  kindred  to  their  own.  In 
the  subsequent  years  also,  the  officers  and  teachers  of  the 
school  were  aided  in  their  work  by  the  generous  and 
friendly  help  which  he  was  ready  to  afford  them.  I 
think  he  had  even  from  an  early  time  the  desire  and 
purpose  of  making  the  University  in  the  future  the  pos- 
sessor of  the  artistic  works  which  he  had  collected  in 
his  own  home. 

Through  the  generous  gift  made  to  the  fund  for  the 
foundation  of  the  Professorship  of  Natural  History,  in 
1850,  he  contributed  in  no  inconsiderable  measure  to 
428 


PROFESSOR    EDWARD    E.    SALISBURY 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  end  of  securing  for  the  College  the  services  of  Pro- 
fessor James  D.  Dana.  This  gift  exhibited  the  wide- 
ness  of  the  range  of  his  liberal  sentiment.  The  needs 
of  the  institution  were  in  his  thought,  and  he  was  ready 
for  helpfulness  in  the  sphere  of  science  or  art  or  litera- 
ture, believing  in  the  worth  of  all  alike  for  educated 
men.  By  reason  of  his  testamentary  bequests  the  Uni- 
versity will  ultimately  come  into  possession  of  a  very 
considerable  share  of  his  estate. 

In  his  own  special  department  of  scholarship  Profes- 
sor Salisbury  held  an  honorable  position  and  one  which 
was  peculiar  to  himself.  Among  the  earliest  of  our 
countrymen  to  choose  Oriental  studies  for  the  work  of 
life,  he  found  himself,  in  a  sense,  in  the  position  of  a 
pioneer  and  leader.  The  way  for  others  was  to  be 
opened  and  interest  in  a  new  sphere  of  study  awakened. 
He  certainly  did  the  work  of  the  early  years  with  ear- 
nestness and  the  true  scholarly  spirit.  By  his  efficient 
agency  in  establishing,  and  for  a  considerable  period 
largely  sustaining  through  his  own  efforts  and  contribu- 
tions, the  American  Oriental  Society,  the  cause  of  learn- 
ing in  this  interesting  sphere  was  greatly  advanced.  The 
younger  men  who  followed  in  his  pathway  as  Oriental 
scholars  found  encouragement  when  meeting  him,  as 
they  saw  in  him  one  who  had  worked  before  them  and 
for  them. 

In  his  personality  he  impressed  every  one  with  the 
thought  of  a  cultivated  and  refined  gentleman  of  the 
highest  social  rank,  yet  of  one  who  was  self-withdrawing 
and  perhaps  self-distrustful.  He  had,  indeed,  much 
strength  of  character  and  force  of  will.  But  he  was 
willing  to  let  his  influence  go  forth  from  himself  quietly 
and  work  with  a  silent  power  for  the  good  of  others. 
The  lessons  of  such  a  life  have  their  own  peculiar  worth. 

Dr.  William  L.  Kingsley,  who  died  five  years  before 
429 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Professor  Salisbury,  in  April,  1896,  was  a  graduate  of 
the  College  of  the  year  1843,  but  he  did  not  hold  any 
official  position  within  it.  He  had,  however,  from  his 
earliest  years,  lived  in  the  very  midst  of  its  inmost  life, 
inasmuch  as  he  was  a  son  of  Professor  James  L.  Kings- 
ley,  and  was,  even  as  a  child,  acquainted  with  his  father's 
associates  and  friends.  The  history  of  the  institution 
in  the  first  half  of  the  century  came  to  his  knowledge 
easily,  as  he  listened  to  the  familiar  conversation  of  the 
different  households.  That  of  the  previous  century, 
also,  was  readily  opened  to  him  by  reason  of  his  father's 
careful  and  thorough  researches. 

Like  his  elder  brother,  the  College  Treasurer,  of 
whom  I  have  already  written  somewhat,  he  had  from 
his  father  the  inheritance  of  the  historian's  mind  and  im- 
pulses, and  thus,  as  he  grew  up  to  early  manhood  and 
beyond  it,  the  studies  of  the  historical  order  became  to 
him  increasingly  attractive.  These  studies,  as  they  were 
directed  from  time  to  time  toward  the  past  life  of  the 
College,  strengthened  his  affection  for  the  institution 
and  awakened  ever  more  and  more  interest  in  its  well- 
being  and  earnestness  in  its  behalf.  The  enthusiasm  of 
his  nature,  which  was  remarkable,  exhibited  itself  more 
conspicuously,  if  possible,  in  his  thoughts  and  efforts  in 
relation  to  the  College  than  in  any  other  sphere  of  his 
working.  I  have  never  known  a  more  ardent,  whole- 
souled,  devoted  son  of  Yale  than  he  was  in  all  the  years 
of  my  acquaintance  with  him. 

His  service  was  given  freely  to  the  institution  in  dif- 
ferent ways  and  on  many  occasions.  The  most  contin- 
uous and  helpful  work  which  he  did  in  its  behalf  was, 
no  doubt,  that  connected  with  the  New  Englander — 
the  periodical,  or  Quarterly,  which  was  for  a  long  time 
under  his  control  as  its  owner  and  editor  and  was,  by 
reason  of  his  judicious  and  generous  management,  a 
representative  in  large  measure  of  the  thoughts  and 
430 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

opinions  of  Yale  professors.  For  the  editorship  of  such 
a  Quarterly  he  had  gifts  of  an  unusual  order,  which  he 
was  always  willing  to  put  in  exercise  for  the  best  interests 
of  the  University.  His  editorial  care  also,  and  his  par- 
tial authorship  of  the  large  Yale  Book,  as  it  is  often 
called,  which  was  published  in  1879,  and  in  which  much 
of  the  history  of  the  institution  in  various  departments 
of  its  life  is  given,  ought  never  to  be  forgotten.  This 
very  valuable  book,  as  we  may  believe,  would  not  have 
been  prepared  and  published,  had  it  not  been  for  his 
energy. 

The  fact  that  he  was  such  a  disinterested  and  devoted 
friend  of  the  University — one  who,  though  not  engaged 
in  its  immediate  work,  could  be  relied  upon  for  enthusi- 
astic effort  whenever  there  was  a  call  for  his  activity — 
was  of  much  advantage  to  its  officers  and  those  who  were 
nearest  to  its  central  life.  He  had  at  times  a  special  in- 
fluence by  reason  of  his  position,  which  could  be  made 
available  for  the  best  results.  His  helpfulness  in  one  or 
two  important  crises,  though  it  was  known  to  but  few, 
contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  highest  welfare  of 
the  institution.  He  was  indeed  one  of  its  genuine  bene- 
factors. 

In  recognition  of  his  literary  attainments  and  ability 
the  University  conferred  upon  him,  in  the  year  1892, 
the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Letters — a  well-de- 
served mark  of  distinction,  which  may  fitly  have  been 
especially  gratifying  to  his  feeling  because  it  was  the  first 
degree  of  this  order  given  at  Yale. 

As  a  friend  and  associate  Mr.  Kingsley  was  of  the 
number  of  those  whom  we  are  wont  to  call  the  kindest- 
hearted  men  in  the  world — full  of  generous  feeling, 
sympathy,  affection,  and  readiness  to  make  life  happier 
and  better  for  all  about  him.  He  had  a  nervous 
energy  which  was  very  uncommon.  United  with  a  pecu- 
liar and  extraordinary  ardor  and  moved  by  his  wide- 

43i 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

reaching  interest  in  matters  of  thought  and  of  effort,  it 
seemed  to  give  him  more  vitality  than  most  men  possess 
and  to  render  his  mind  alive  to  all  that  was  new  and 
good.  His  every  movement  indicated  the  eagerness  of 
his  spirit,  and  the  outgoing  of  his  sentiment  was  charm- 
ing to  all  his  friends.  Their  thought  of  him,  as  the 
years  pass  on,  is  always  a  pleasant  thought. 


432 


XXIII. 
The  Corporation  of  This  Period — 1886-99. 

THE  Corporation  of  the  University  within  the 
period  from  1886  to  1899  differed  very  wide- 
ly, in  respect  to  the  official  tenure  of  its  indi- 
vidual members,  from  the  same  body  as  it  was  consti- 
tuted at  the  time  when  I  was  elected  to  my  professorship, 
in  1858.  Six  of  the  ten  ministers  who  were  in  the 
Board  at  that  earlier  date  held  their  membership  in  it,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  for  terms  extending  from  twenty- 
five  to  forty  years.  In  1886,  on  the  other  hand,  only 
three  of  the  members,  whether  of  the  clerical  order  or  of 
the  class  chosen  by  the  alumni,  had  occupied  their  posi- 
tions more  than  twelve  years,  and  in  1899  only  one  had 
reached  the  limit  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  official  life. 
Of  the  sixteen  members  of  the  Board — exclusive  of  the 
President  of  the  College  and  the  Governor  and  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  of  the  State — who  were  in  office  at  the 
time  of  my  election  to  the  Presidency,  May  20,  1886, 
six  had  been  removed  by  death  before  1899,  and  two 
had  withdrawn  from  service — one  of  them  because  of 
the  expiration  of  the  term  for  which  he  had  been  elected, 
and  the  other  by  reason  of  a  call  to  a  different  position 
in  the  University.  Two  others  passed  out  of  connection 
with  the  Board  at  the  close  of  my  administration.  As  a 
consequence,  only  six  of  those  who  appointed  me  to  my 
office,  and  to  whom  I  looked  for  counsel  and  support, 
remained  as  advisers  or  helpers  of  my  successor.  So 
rapidly  do  we  move  from  one  generation  and  one  era  to 
another. 

433 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

All  the  members  of  the  Corporation  as  it  was  in  1886, 
who  have  died  since  then,  were  interesting  and  valuable 
men.  Some  of  them  were  men  of  extraordinary  gifts, 
as  well  as  great  attractiveness  because  of  their  peculiar 
and  even  charming  characteristics.  Pre-eminent  among 
them  were  the  Hon.  William  M.  Evarts,  whose  life 
continued  until  the  year  1901,  but  whose  membership  in 
the  Board  ceased  in  1892,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nathaniel 
J.  Burton,  who  died  in  1889. 

Dr.  Burton  was  a  man  of  rich  and  royal  nature;  one 
who,  by  reason  of  his  personal  appearance,  his  intel- 
lectual ability  and  even  genius,  his  wide-reaching  and 
all-embracing  humanity,  his  joyous  and  inimitable 
humor,  and  the  affluence  of  his  imagination,  would  have 
been  conspicuous  in  any  company  of  men,  however  able 
or  gifted.  He  was  lovable  in  a  high  degree,  yet  one's 
affection  for  him  seemed,  as  it  were,  to  have  a  different 
starting-point  and  a  different  order  of  movement,  as 
compared  with  that  which  one  felt  for  other  friends. 
The  charm  of  his  personality  was  all  his  own.  It  ap- 
peared, as  I  thought  of  it,  to  have  its  place  in  the  very 
center  of  the  manhood — at  the  source  alike  of  all  emo- 
tional and  intellectual  activities.  These  were  the  means 
by  which  it  manifested  itself,  indeed,  but  it  used  them  in 
a  most  unique  and  singular  way — making  the  two  activ- 
ities intermingle  and  unite  their  forces,  so  that  each 
wrought  harmoniously  with  the  other,  and  the  result 
was  the  combination  of  both.  The  intellectual  did  not 
and  could  not  move  by  itself.  No  more  could  the  emo- 
tional. But  each  entered,  as  it  were,  into  the  other,  and 
contributed  its  helpful  and  valuable  influence.  In  no 
man  whom  I  have  known  has  this  peculiarity  of  nature 
been  so  marked.  There  were  no  thoughts  in  his  mind, 
we  might  almost  say,  which  were  not  quickened  and  in- 
spired by  genuine  and  generous  feeling.  There  was  no 
434 


REV.  DR.  NATHANIEL  J.  BURTON 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

exhibition  of  emotion  through  which  the  brightness  of 
the  intellect  did  not  shine  forth  with  a  beautiful  light. 
As  a  consequence  of  this,  every  new  idea  which  came  to 
him  seemed  to  be  taken  up  into  his  whole  nature,  and 
when  it  came  forth  from  him  to  others,  it  had  a  new 
richness  that  rendered  it  doubly  interesting.  The  inter- 
change of  ideas  with  him  was,  for  this  reason  also,  very 
stimulating  and  very  suggestive.  One  carried  away  from 
such  friendly  talks  thoughts  which  had  not  come  to  one's 
mind  before — thoughts  also,  which  though  already  well- 
known,  presented  themselves  with  a  freshness  of  living 
force. 

A  mind  and  spirit  like  his,  ever  moving  in  unison, 
could  not  be  limited  by  any  narrowness  of  sentiment  or 
of  faith.  Yet  the  stability  of  his  nature  kept  him  firmly 
fixed  upon  the  foundations  of  belief  and  thought,  while 
it  also  prevented  feeling  from  usurping  the  place  of  rea- 
son or  breaking  away  from  its  control.  For  this  reason, 
while  he  was  liberal  and  progressive  in  his  thinking,  he 
was  never  destructive.  There  was  growth  always,  and 
a  readiness  for  it.  It  was,  however,  a  growth  which  had 
its  origin  and  movement  within  the  sphere  of  the  truth. 
He  had  the  hospitality  of  a  generous  mind  with  refer- 
ence to  new  ideas,  yet  did  not  lose  his  confidence  in  the 
old  ones  which  had  borne  witness  in  his  own  experience 
of  their  life-giving  force,  and  thus  had  become  very 
precious  to  him. 

He  once  said,  in  my  hearing,  that  he  could  in  a  sense 
accept  any  Christian  creed,  whatever  minor  faults  there 
might  be  in  it,  because  he  liked  to  look  at  it  on  the  good 
side  and  in  the  large  way.  The  littleness  of  the  divisive 
spirit  he  knew  nothing  of.  He  was  too  large-hearted 
for  quarrels  and  too  broad-minded  for  controversy.  The 
outgoing  of  his  sympathy  made  him  wide-reaching  in  his 
Christian  fellowship.  The  influence  of  it  in  its  bearing 
upon  others,  who  were  brought  into  association  with  him, 

435 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

tended  towards  the  same  happy  result  in  their  minds. 
Eager  and  even  angry  combatants  could  scarcely  fail,  in 
his  presence,  to  find  their  bitterness  passing  away  and  a 
kindlier  and  more  tolerant  feeling  taking  its  place.  He 
was  a  Christian  in  the  truest  sense — one  whose  life  grew 
more  like  that  of  the  Divine  Master,  as  he  advanced 
in  years.  But  he  was  one  who,  like  the  Divine  Master 
Himself,  recognized  the  fact  that  "there  are  other  sheep 
that  are  not  of  this  fold."  What  a  happy  thing  it  is, 
to  see  a  man  whose  largeness  of  heart  gives  broadness 
to  his  thought,  and  whose  richness  of  thought  renders 
the  emotional  nature  yet  more  far-reaching  in  its  affec- 
tion. We  who  knew  Dr.  Burton  had  the  happiness  of 
seeing  such  a  man. 

His  imaginative  power  made  its  contribution,  as  I 
think,  to  his  manhood  in  the  aspect  of  it  which  I  have 
tried  to  present.  This  faculty  of  his  mind  was  so  rich 
and  exuberant  in  its  varied  manifestations  that  it  made 
itself  conspicuous  in  all  his  thinking  and  speaking.  The 
thoughts  which  came  to  him  refused  to  be  confined  with- 
in narrow  bounds,  or  to  limit  themselves  in  their  utter- 
ance to  old  or  wonted  forms  of  expression.  If  I  may 
use  again  words  which  I  wrote  of  him  years  ago,  I 
would  say:  The  moment  the  truth  revealed  itself  to 
him  it  was  taken  up  and  transfigured  by  a  mysterious 
working  of  mental  power,  so  that  it  gained  a  freshness 
and  beauty  which  made  it  a  thing  of  life  and  joy.  It 
continued,  also,  a  living  thing.  It  did  not  remain  to-day 
what  it  was  yesterday,  but  with  each  new  morning  it 
presented  itself  in  some  new  aspect,  and  thus  awakened 
the  mind  to  see  within  it  a  fresh  charm  and  an  added 
blessing.  Thoughts  came  to  him  respecting  it  as  sweetly 
as  flowers  come  in  the  summer  and  with  the  exhaustless 
fullness  of  a  fountain.  The  outlook  seemed  to  reach 
ever  farther  into  the  distance  and,  beyond  what  could  be 
seen  by  the  utmost  stretch  of  present  vision,  there  was 
436 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

a  greater  glory  to  inspire  and  allure  the  seeking  mind 
in  the  future. 

Dr.  Burton's  humanity  was  another  significant  char- 
acteristic, as  bearing  upon  his  thought  and  expression. 
He  was  remarkably  appreciative  of  men  and  his  estimate 
of  them  was  generous.  He  recognized  the  common  na- 
ture of  all  men,  seeing  in  himself  its  limitations,  its 
hopes,  and  its  possibilities.  The  tendency  and  the  im- 
pulse of  his  manhood  moved  him  always  to  look  for 
and  upon  the  better  side  of  those  with  whom  he  came 
in  contact.  His  native  disposition  was  to  make  kindly 
allowance  for  their  weaknesses  and  to  take  them  at  their 
best.  In  the  same  way  he  opened  his  mind,  with  a  true 
liberality,  towards  the  half-truths  which  others  were 
ready  to  advocate,  to  the  end  that  he  might,  in  his  own 
thinking,  fill  them  out  to  their  completeness,  or,  again, 
towards  the  narrow  views  of  those  who  could  see  but 
little,  that  he  might  broaden  them  by  his  own  wider 
vision. 

But  not  only  this.  His  humanity  also  rendered  him 
hopeful  in  all  his  Christian  work.  There  was  in  him  a 
deep-seated  confidence  in  the  nobility  and  real  grandeur 
of  the  human  soul,  which  made  him  a  believer  in  the 
final  triumph  of  good  over  evil,  and  gave  him  a  never- 
failing  enthusiasm  in  his  work  for  this  end.  The  pessi- 
mistic element  had  no  place  in  his  nature.  Not  that  he 
had  no  seasons  of  depression,  nor  never  saw  the  darker 
side  of  things.  All  thoughtful,  loving  souls,  that  have 
an  inward  look,  have  such  seasons.  But  the  generous 
thought  of  the  world  was  victorious,  and  no  dark  hour 
cast  a  long-continuing  shadow  over  the  many  brighter 
ones  that  followed.  I  believe  that  the  sweetest  charac- 
ters— those  in  which  sweetness  and  richness  are  united — 
have,  in  almost  all  cases,  a  tinge  of  melancholy.  This 
is,  in  reality,  a  part  of  the  rich  inner  life,  which  gives 
beauty  to  it  and  makes  it  full  of  helpfulness  and  comfort 

437 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  other  lives.  The  shadows,  however,  must  not  per- 
manently obscure  the  sunlight.  If  they  do,  the  richness 
and  the  sweetness  vanish  together.  No  man  of  the 
broad  and  magnanimous  human  feeling  which  Dr.  Bur- 
ton had  could  abide  in  the  dark  regions  of  the  soul's  ex- 
perience. The  windows  of  his  mind  and  heart  were  ever 
open  to  the  light,  and  the  clouds  soon  passed  away.  His 
preaching  and  his  thinking,  consequently,  were  hopeful, 
stimulative  toward  the  better  things,  inspiring  to  nobler 
life,  encouraging  for  the  attainment  of  the  highest  possi- 
bilities. 

Dr.  Burton's  humor  was  but  the  outflow  of  his  whole 
manhood.  The  manhood  would  not  have  been  com- 
plete without  it.  It  was  not  so  much  a  succession  of 
sparkling  witticisms,  or  bright  sayings  standing  apart  by 
themselves,  or  quick  responses  to  others'  thoughts,  giv- 
ing to  them  a  new  and  unexpected  turn.  Many  brilliant 
men,  as  we  all  know,  have  wit  or  humor  of  this  order, 
in  greater  or  less  degree.  In  his  case,  it  was  as  if  a  bub- 
bling spring  of  joyous  thought,  the  outflowing  of  which 
in  expression  gave  pleasure  to  himself,  and  to  those  who 
talked  with  him,  by  the  amusing  strangeness  of  the 
words  or  analogies,  even  as,  in  another  way,  delight  was 
afforded  by  his  imagination.  An  essential  element  in 
humor — so  it  is  said — is  found  in  its  surprises.  The 
surprises  were  everywhere,  as  it  seemed,  in  his  case.  At 
any  and  every  moment,  the  mind  of  the  listener  was 
charmed  by  the  unexpected  comparison  or  the  peculiar 
turn  of  expression,  which  gave  a  bright  flash  of  light  to 
the  thought  and  rendered  it  more  clear  and  fascinating. 
His  humor,  as  it  uttered  itself  in  words,  appeared  to  me 
to  have  a  likeness  to  the  gift  of  illustration  which  was  so 
remarkable  in  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  The  expression 
came  naturally,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  out  of  the 
richness  of  the  mind  and  soul — out  of  the  fullness  of  the 
fountain.  It  was  not  the  result  of  careful  searching,  or 
438 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

something  made  ready  for  use  at  a  future  time  when 
there  might  be  a  call  for  it.  It  was,  on  the  contrary,  the 
outcome  of  an  enthusiastic  and  joyous  nature. 

When  I  had  reached  this  point,  in  my  writing  of  Dr. 
Burton,  I  opened  at  random  the  volume  containing  his 
Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching,  which  were  given  in  our 
Divinity  School,  in  the  year  1882.  My  eye,  as  it 
chanced,  fell  upon  the  following  passage,  which  reveals 
so  much  of  the  man — not  more,  indeed,  than  many 
others,  nor  half  so  much  as  many,  yet  enough  to  show  in 
some  measure  what  he  was — that  I  venture  to  quote  it, 
and  with  it  to  complete  my  imperfect  description  of  him. 

"While  I  am  on  this  matter  of  language,  with  its 
coinage  all  effaced  by  centuries  of  use" — a  subject  of 
which  he  had  just  been  speaking  at  some  length — "per- 
mit me  to  refer  you  to  old  creeds  and  old  liturgies  as 
frequently  examples  of  that  thing.  The  creeds  and  the 
liturgies,  in  themselves,  are  well  enough;  but  reiteration 
tends  to  dull  a  man's  sense  of  words.  If  he  does  not 
watch,  and  incessantly  energize  upon  them,  he  loses  not 
only  their  genetic  meaning  and  vigor,  but  also  their 
present  meanings;  and,  in  this  loss  of  all  meanings,  the 
recitation  of  the  forms  is  as  useless  as  an  inarticulate 
monotone.  Even  that  monotone  might  have  some  good 
influence  in  it,  provided  it  was  solemn,  and  I  should 
advise  people  to  congregate  on  the  Lord's  day  and  go 
through  that,  if  nothing  better  could  be  had.  The  sound 
of  the  wind  in  the  pine  forest  is  moral.  All  grave 
tones  steadily  prolonged  are  moral;  and  liturgies  will 
live  and  creeds  will  keep  on,  for  the  sake  of  the  sound 
of  them,  if  for  no  other  reason.  But  it  must  hurt  their 
feelings  dreadfully  to  be  reduced  to  that,  when  they  are 
conscious  that  they  are  live  things;  that  they  had  a 
parentage,  and  a  powerful  parentage,  and  have  had  a 
career,  too;  that  they  did  mean  something  on  the  lips  of 

4-39 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

those  who  made  them,  and  were  intended  to  describe 
forever  certain  august  realities. 

"I  should  like  to  spend  about  twenty-four  hours  of 
continuous  speech  here  in  your  presence,  running  the 
terms  of  the  Nicene  Creed  back  to  their  radicals  (as  far 
as  possible),  reproducing  the  history  too  of  that  great 
symbol,  and  especially  its  origination;  and  then,  when 
you  and  I  had  come  into  a  full  possession  of  the  dear 
old  things,  standing  up  all  together  and  reciting  it.  We 
should  hardly  be  able  to  contain  ourselves.  The  famil- 
iar drone  of  utterance  would  be  changed  to  a  play  of 
thunderclaps,  comparatively.  We  should  have  a  Mount 
Sinai  here,  and  an  awfulness  as  of  God  made  visible  and 
audible." 

Then  he  adds:  "For  me,  I  have  ceased  fearing  that 
time-honored  forms  in  the  Church,  creedal  and  liturgic, 
will  suffer  permanent  damage  in  the  vehemency  and 
crash  of  debate.  The  Catholic  symbols  are  the  common- 
sense  of  the  Christian  ages,  crystallized  and  solidified; 
and  they  will  bear  a  good  deal  of  knocking  about.  They 
are  the  survivals  of  the  fittest,  and  are  therefore  likely 
to  survive.  I  do  not  know  what  verbal  modifications 
may  be  forced  upon  them ;  but  I  certainly  do  not  look  to 
see  any  breach  in  their  substance.  And  as  to  forms  less 
hallowed,  whatever  they  may  be,  forms  provincial, 
forms  denominational,  forms  philosophical,  I  am  glad 
to  see  them  put  through  the  threshing-mills  of  debate, 
at  intervals,  so  that  the  immortal  in  them  may  redemon- 
strate  its  indestructibility,  and  the  partial  and  ephemeral 
in  them  may  be  compelled  to  show  its  insufficiency.  Not 
all  insufficient  things  are  worthless.  The  butterfly  needs 
a  worm-form  by  which  to  climb  to  its  winged  state;  and 
Truth  seems  to  be  willing  to  put  up  with  imperfect  state- 
ments by  way  of  transition  to  something  higher.  She  is 
a  veritable  butterfly,  though,  in  heart  and  fact,  whether 
440 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

detained  as  yet  in  her  worm-life,  or  all  emerged  and 
fair." 

How  much  of  the  man's  mental  processes  and  work- 
ings, so  individual  and  delightful;  how  much  of  his  im- 
aginative power,  of  his  generous  confidence  in  mankind, 
of  his  immovable  hopefulness,  even  of  his  genial  and 
outflowing  humor,  may  be  seen  in  these  words  upon 
which  we  come,  as  it  were,  by  accident.  .The  man,  in 
the  riches  of  his  nature,  was  before  us  whenever  we 
heard  him  giving  expression  to  his  thoughts.  His  very 
countenance,  as  we  looked  upon  it,  showed  his  master- 
ful power. 

Mr.  Evarts  was  so  well  and  widely  known  throughout 
the  country,  and' his  career  and  character  have  been  set 
forth  before  the  public  by  others  so  fully  and  faithfully 
since  his  death  in  1901,  that  I  feel  much  hesitation  in 
attempting  to  add  any  descriptive  words  of  my  own  on 
the  pages  of  this  volume.  I  am  sure,  however,  that  I 
am  justified  in  saying  that  of  the  sons  of  Yale  who  have 
graduated  within  the  last  seventy  years,  he  was  one  of 
the  very  foremost  and  most  illustrious.  His  keenness  of 
intellect,  his  mental  grasp,  his  comprehensiveness  of  un- 
derstanding, the  depth  and  clearness  of  his  thought,  his 
force  in  argument,  and  his  forensic  ability  in  the  best  and 
largest  sense  were  so  conspicuous,  that  he  was  every- 
where regarded  as  one  of  the  most  eminent  leaders  in 
his  profession. 

His  connection  with  the  Yale  Corporation  extended 
over  a  period  of  nineteen  years,  from  1872  to  1891. 
His  official  'term  included  the  whole  of  Dr.  Porter's 
Presidency,  with  the  exception  of  a  single  year,  together 
with  the  first  five  years  of  my  own.  During  the  larger 
part  of  this  time,  his  duties  at  Washington,  as  was  the 
case  also  with  his  College  classmate  and  associate  in  the 
Board,  Chief  Justice  Waite,  were  so  exacting  that  there 
441 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

was  comparatively  little  opportunity  allowed  him  for 
very  special  attention  to  the  affairs  of  the  University. 
He  and  his  associate,  however,  were  thoughtful  of  its 
interests.  They  were  also  of  much  value  to  it  by  reason 
of  the  public  positions  which  they  held  and  the  honor 
which  they  brought  to  it  as  it  was  represented  by  them 
before  the  world. 

The  prominent  offices  which  were  given  to  Mr.  Evarts 
at  Washington — in  the  Cabinet,  as  Attorney  General 
and  afterwards  Secretary  of  State,  and  in  Congress,  as  a 
Senator  from  New  York — carried  in  and  with  them- 
selves an  emphatic  testimony  to  the  high  esteem  in  which 
he  was  held  by  the  people  and  by  the  Government.  They 
were  the  well-merited  reward  of  his  life-work.  They 
gave  him,  however,  no  greater  distinction  than  he  gave 
them.  His  service  in  each  one  of  them  was  rendered 
conscientiously  and  in  a  manner  characteristic  of  him- 
self, even  as  it  always  was  in  his  more  private  profes- 
sional career.  Among  the  many  noted  cases  in  which 
he  was  engaged  as  an  advocate,  no  two,  perhaps,  were 
more  conspicuous  than  that  of  the  proposed  impeach- 
ment of  President  Johnson,  and  that  connected  with 
Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  His  valuable  service  in 
these  two  cases — in  the  former  of  which  he  contributed 
effectively  to  the  right  result  in  a  very  serious  and  impor- 
tant crisis  of  our  later  history,  while  in  the  latter  he  did 
much  to  the  end  of  freeing  one  of  the  largest-minded  and 
great-souled  men  of  the  country  from  the  hostile  attacks 
made  upon  his  character  and  fame — may  well  be  remem- 
bered by  all  who  can  recall  the  years  gone  by  and  the 
events  that  belonged  to  them. 

Much  has  been  said  of  late  of  Mr.  Evarts'  wit,  which 
was  indeed  of  a  very  remarkable  order.  I  may  almost 
say  that  it  was  of  every  kind  within  the  sphere  of  a  re- 
fined and  cultured  scholar  and  gentleman.  It  was  as 
bright  and  keen  as  was  his  intellect -itself.  It  was  as 
442 


HON.  WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

quick  in  its  movement  as  it  was  brilliant  in  its  display. 
It  was  inexhaustible,  always  ready  for  the  demand  of 
the  moment,  and  always  exquisitely  adapted  to  the 
emergency  that  presented  itself.  I  shall  not  try  to  give 
examples  of  it  which  are  unknown  to  others,  or  to  dwell 
upon  or  characterize  it  at  any  length.  I  may  say,  how- 
ever, that  among  his  witticisms  the  one  pertaining  to  his 
interview  with  Lord  Coleridge  seems  especially  worthy 
of  mention.  When  we  consider  the  peculiarities  of  the 
English  mind  as  compared  with  the  American — pecu- 
liarities in  the  matter  of  appreciation — and  recall  to 
mind  the  financial  circumstances  of  the  time,  I  cannot 
help  regarding  it  as  quite  inimitable.  The  English 
Chief  Justice,  when  visiting  Mount  Vernon  in  company 
with  Mr.  Evarts — it  will  be  remembered — spoke  to  him 
of  the  story,  which  he  had  heard,  that  Washington  had 
thrown  a  dollar  across  the  Potomac  River,  and  expressed 
a  doubt,  as  he  saw  the  width  of  the  river,  whether  it 
could  be  true.  He  asked  Mr.  Evarts'  opinion  on  the 
matter.  I  will  not  affirm  it  with  confidence,  Mr.  Evarts 
replied,  but  a  dollar,  you  know,  went  farther  in  those 
days,  than  it  does  now.  I  can  picture  to  myself  the  Chief 
Justice,  or  some  of  his  friends  at  home,  to  whom  he 
may  have  repeated  the  remark,  as  questioning  with 
themselves  what  bearing  this  fact  about  the  value  of  a 
dollar  had  upon  the  point. 

One  of  the  best  examples  of  his  quickness  and  felicity 
in  the  line  of  repartee  was  given,  as  I  think,  in  response 
to  a  word  spoken  by  myself.  On  occasion  of  one  of  our 
Yale  Commencement  dinners  I  had  the  duty,  as  the  pre- 
siding officer,  of  introducing  the  speakers.  In  perform- 
ing this  duty  with  reference  to  Mr.  Evarts  I  said,  in 
allusion  to  the  well-known  length  of  his  sentences  in 
public  address,  "Mr.  Evarts  will  now  give  us  a  single 
sentence."  He  rose,  and  instantaneously  replied,  "It 

443 


MEMORIES    OF    YALE    LIFE    AND    MEN 

will  be  a  life-sentence."  Nothing,  surely,  could  have 
been  more  apt  and  delightful,  or  more  like  himself. 

I  will  only  add  one  further  instance  of  a  different 
order,  in  which  his  humor  displayed  itself  very  charac- 
teristically, and  in  a  manner  peculiarly  charming  to  my 
own  mind.  He  was  calling  upon  me  not  long  after  his 
recovery  from  a  very  serious  accident  which  had  befallen 
him  at  his  country  home  in  Vermont  and,  in  the  course 
of  the  conversation,  he  was  speaking  of  some  of  the  ex- 
periences which  he  had  had  in  his  illness.  "One  day," 
he  said,  "just  as  I  was  beginning  to  recover  my  strength, 
the  physicians,  who  were  in  attendance  upon  me  visited 
me  at  the  usual  hour  and,  when  they  had  finished  their 
consultation  and  advice,  one  of  them  remarked,  It  must 
be  rather  trying  to  you  to  have  three  doctors  come  in 
together  to  see  you  every  day.  Yes,  I  replied,  but  there 
is  one  mitigation  of  the  trial — I  notice  that  they  all  go 
out  together."  That  word  of  his  found  a  happy  lodg- 
ing-place in  my  mind — a  place  in  the  region  of  my  sym- 
pathetic nature, — and  there  it  has  remained  until  now. 

Mr.  Evarts'  wit,  however,  was  only  the  play  of  his 
powers.  It  was  not  his  power  itself — as  it  is  not  in  the 
highest  order  of  men.  His  intellectual  forces  moved  in 
many  directions.  By  reason  of  his  clearness  of  appre- 
hension and  insight,  their  movement  was  always  most 
effective  for  the  desired  result.  They  were,  also,  fully 
under  his  control  at  all  times,  so  that  his  work  was  car- 
ried forward  with  ease  and  precision.  He  perceived,  at 
the  first  thought  of  a  subject  presented  for  his  consid- 
eration, the  central  point  which  was  of  all  importance, 
and  thus  wasted  no  time  or  energy.  A  mind  like  his  is 
interesting  in  every  aspect  of  it. 

Of  the  other  members  of  the  Corporation  who  held 
their  official  positions  partly  or  wholly  within  the  period 
of  my  administration,  but  whose  life  has  not  continued 

444 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

to  the  date  of  the  writing  of  these  pages,  I  can  allow 
myself  space  only  to  say  a  few  words.  Rev.  Samuel  G. 
Willard  was  the  oldest  but  one  among  them  all  in  his 
term  of  service.  His  election  to  his  membership  in  the 
Board  took  place  in  June,  1867.  He  had,  accordingly, 
been  in  his  office  for  nineteen  years  at  the  time  of  my 
appointment  to  the  Presidency.  In  all  these  years  his 
efforts  had  been  given  without  reserve  to  the  interests 
of  the  institution,  so  far  as  the  opportunities  and  possi- 
bilities pertaining  to  his  office  demanded  them.  During 
several  of  the  later  years  he  had  served  as  one  of  those 
who  formed  the  principal  Committee  of  the  Board,  and 
in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  connected  with  this  posi- 
tion he  had  proved  himself  efficient  and  had  won  the 
regard  of  his  associates.  His  health,  however,  became 
seriously  impaired  in  the  summer  of  1886,  so  that  he 
was  unable  to  attend  any  of  the  meetings  of  the  Board, 
or  to  take  any  active  part  in  administering  the  affairs  of 
the  College,  after  that  time.  It  was  not  permitted  me, 
therefore,  to  have  conference  with  him  on  the  questions 
of  interest  which  presented  themselves,  or  to  enjoy  the 
benefit  of  his  wisdom  and  counsel.  I  had  long  had  the 
pleasure  of  his  acquaintance,  however,  and  had  thus 
learned  to  esteem  him  for  the  excellence  of  his  character. 
He  was  a  man  of  sound  New  England  mind,  of  kindly 
temper  and  amiable  disposition,  of  calm  judgment,  and 
of  earnest  piety.  For  more  than  thirty  years  he  filled 
the  pastorate  of  a  quiet  village  Church,  in  which  his 
Christian  work  was  rich  in  its  fruits,  and  abundant  in  its 
blessing  for  all  who  knew  him.  He  died  in  the  early 
summer  of  1887. 

Dr.  Lavalette  Perrin,  the  father  of  Professor  Perrin, 
was  a  member  of  the  Board  for  only  seven  years,  from 
1882  to  1889.  He  was  a  man  of  wider  activity  in  the 
Church  life  of  the  State  than  Mr.  Willard,  and  thus  of 
more  extended  influence,  but  the  services  rendered  by 

445 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  two  to  the  University  were  inspired  by  a  similar  gen- 
erous interest  in  its  well-being.  Dr.  Perrin  held  the 
pastoral  office  in  two  or  three  different  places  during 
the  larger  part  of  his  career,  in  each  one  of  which  his 
ministry  was  very  successful.  In  the  latest  years,  how- 
ever, he  entered  into  the  more  general  and  public  work 
of  the  Congregational  Churches  of  the  State,  and  had 
his  residence  in  Hartford.  In  that  city,  on  the  night 
of  the  1 8th  of  February,  1889,  both  he  and  his  wife  lost 
their  lives  through  the  burning  of  the  hotel  in  which 
they  had  their  apartments.  They  are  both  held  in  af- 
fectionate remembrance  by  a  large  company  of  friends 
who  honored  and  revered  them  while  they  lived. 

Dr.  Perrin  graduated  with  the  Class  of  1840,  and 
Mr.  Willard  with  that  of  1846.  Rev.  Edward  A. 
Smith,  who  was  selected  to  fill  the  place  of  Dr.  Perrin, 
received  his  Bachelor's  degree  in  1856.  He  was  ac- 
cordingly from  ten  to  fifteen  years  younger  than  these 
gentlemen.  His  official  term,  however,  continued  only 
for  a  brief  period,  as  his  life  came  to  its  end  in  the 
autumn  of  1895,  when  he  had  not  yet  passed  beyond 
the  prime  of  his  manhood.  A  cultured  and  refined  gen- 
tleman, he  manifested  always  great  interest  in  scholar- 
ship and  intellectual  life.  Though  modest  and  retiring 
in  his  disposition,  he  had  such  abundant  mental  re- 
sources and  such  suggestiveness  in  his  thoughts,  that 
his  conversation  was  stimulating  to  meditative  and  earn- 
est minds.  The  people  of  his  parish  in  Farmington, 
Conn.,  to  whom  he  ministered  for  thirteen  years  as  a 
successor  to  Dr.  Noah  Porter,  the  father  of  President 
Porter,  were  very  strongly  attached  to  him.  His  friends 
in  the  ministry,  also,  fully  appreciated  his  powers.  He 
was  a  generous  and  magnanimous  son  of  Yale. 

Dr.  George  Bushnell's  membership  in  the  Corpora- 
tion extended  over  a  period  of  ten  years,  from  1888  to 
1898.  He  was  the  younger  brother  of  Dr.  Horace 
446 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

Bushnell  and,  though  not  possessed  of  his  remarkable 
genius,  had  some  of  the  characteristics  of  his  mind. 
He  had  much  originality  of  thought.  His  style  of  writ- 
ing and  preaching  bore  the  marks  of  this  originality. 
He  was  independent  in  his  thinking  and  a  man  of  lib- 
eral mind.  The  disposition  to  move  hastily  after  what 
was  new,  however,  simply  because  of  its  newness,  was 
not  in  him,  and  he  had  no  desire  to  become  a  combatant 
for  the  mere  pleasure  of  a  contest.  He  sincerely  loved 
the  truth,  believed  in  the  wideness  of  its  reach  beyond 
any  present  application  of  it,  and  entertained  no  doubts 
of  its  final  triumph,  or  of  the  blessing  of  the  emancipa- 
tion which  that  triumph  would  bring.  Like  all  intel- 
lectual men  in  whom  there  is  such  hope  and  confidence, 
he  had  much  enjoyment  in  his  inner  life,  as  well  as  in 
his  studies  and  his  work  for  others. 

The  sphere  of  Dr.  Bushnell's  ministerial  labors  was 
mainly  outside  of  Connecticut.  Though  he  held  for 
some  years  a  pastorate  in  one  of  our  cities,  he  served 
during  the  larger  part  of  his  career  churches  located  in 
Worcester,  Mass.,  and  Beloit,  Wis.  In  the  latter  city, 
he  was  closely  associated  in  sympathy  with  the  gentle- 
men connected  with  the  College  established  there.  After 
his  retirement  from  his  work  in  his  Western  home,  his 
place  of  residence  was  transferred  to  New  Haven.  He 
did  not  again  take  upon  himself  the  duties  of  the  pas- 
toral office,  but  he  was  actively  engaged  in  preaching 
until  within  two  or  three  years  of  the  ending  of  his  life. 
His  service  to  the  University  in  his  advanced  age  an- 
swered, in  its  faithfulness  and  devotion,  to  the  warm 
affection  which  he  bore  towards  it  from  his  early  youth. 

Dr.  Bushnell  entered  our  Corporation  as  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  Rev.  George  J.  Tillotson,  whose  member- 
ship in  the  body,  as  already  stated  on  an  earlier  page, 
continued  for  thirty-nine  years — from  the  end  of  the 
third  year  of  Dr.  Woolsey's  Presidency  to  the  beginning 

447 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  the  third  year  of  my  own.  Mr.  Tillotson  had  a  deep 
and  generous  interest  in  the  higher  education;  an  in- 
terest which  was  manifested  by  his  constancy  in  attend- 
ance upon  the  duties  of  his  office  in  our  institution,  as 
well  as  especially  by  a  liberal  bequest  made  in  his  will 
for  a  collegiate  school  in  the  state  of  Texas. 

Rev.  Dr.  George  Leon  Walker  succeeded  Dr.  Burton 
as  a  member  of  the  Board.  He  was  disabled  by  reason 
of  physical  infirmity  as  early  as  the  autumn  of  1896,  so 
that  his  period  of  active  service  was  not  a  long  one, 
but  his  final  withdrawal  was,  at  the  desire  of  his  col- 
leagues, deferred  until  the  close  of  the  academic  year  in 
June,  1899.  The  prominence  of  Dr.  Walker  as  a 
preacher,  and  as  a  leader  in  the  Congregational  minis- 
try, was  everywhere  recognized  for  many  years  before 
his  death.  The  pastorates  of  two  of  the  leading  Churches 
in  New  England,  the  First  Church  in  New  Haven  and 
the  First  Church  in  Hartford,  were  held  by  him.  In  the 
former  position  he  continued  for  five  years,  from  1868 
to  1873;  and  in  the  latter  for  twenty-one  years — as 
pastor  from  1879  to  1892,  and  as  pastor  emeritus  from 
1892  to  1900.  At  an  earlier  period  he  had  for  several 
years  filled  the  pastoral  office  in  one  of  the  Churches  of 
Portland,  Maine.  In  the  public  life,  also,  of  the  Con- 
gregational denomination  he  was  quite  prominent,  being 
deeply  interested  in  the  most  exciting  questions  which 
came  under  discussion  in  the  later  period  of  his  more 
active  career. 

As  a  preacher,  Dr.  Walker  had  an  impressive  style 
and  manner.  His  sermons  were  full  of  interesting 
thought,  which  was  presented  in  forcible  language,  and 
oftentimes  with  true  eloquence.  WThen  he  first  came  to 
New  Haven  I  was  greatly  attracted  by  his  preaching, 
and  the  same  influence  was  manifest  in  the  case  of  all 
who  heard  him.  His  service  in  the  Church  to  which 
Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  had  so  long  ministered  proved  to  be 
448 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  the  highest  degree  acceptable  and  useful,  so  that  his 
withdrawal  from  it  by  reason  of  infirmity  of  health  oc- 
casioned deep  regret.  In  his  personal  characteristics, 
he  was  a  man  of  force  and  energy,  together  with  strong 
will-power  and  clear  perception,  which  fitted  him  for 
vigorous  action  and,  if  need  were,  for  leading  others. 
At  the  same  time,  there  was  ever  a  readiness  to  co-operate 
with  those  about  him  in  their  efforts  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  good  results.  The  affectionate  regard  of 
his  parishioners  and  the  respect  of  his  ministerial  breth- 
ren were  won  by  his  strong  character  and  his  kind  feel- 
ing which  moved  in  unison  to  helpful  ends. 

Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  W.  Backus  was  a  graduate  of  the 
Class  of  1846.  Three  years  after  he  finished  his  college 
studies,  and  just  as  the  class  to  which  I  belonged  was 
leaving  the  institution,  he  received  an  appointment  as 
Tutor,  which  he  accepted.  In  this  office,  however,  he 
continued  for  only  two  years,  and  then  he  entered  upon 
the  work  of  the  ministry  to  which  he  had  already  con- 
secrated his  life.  Six  pastorates  were  successively 
opened  to  him.  In  these  he  rendered  most  faithful  and 
acceptable  service  for  more  than  a  generation.  Three 
of  them  were  connected  with  churches  located  in  thriving 
and  active  manufacturing  towns  in  Connecticut,  where 
there  was  among  the  people  much  intelligence,  as  well 
as  business  enterprise.  In  all  these  places,  whether  he 
was  in  his  youth  or  his  age,  he  was  regarded  by  every 
one  as  a  Christian  minister  of  the  true  order — one  who 
manifested  in  his  daily  life  the  reality  of  the  faith  which 
he  professed  and  the  doctrine  that  he  taught,  and  one 
who,  in  his  efforts  and  labors,  was  sincerely  desirous  of 
doing  good  to  those  about  him.  His  parishioners  and 
his  fellow-townsmen,  in  each  place  where  he  was  called 
to  make  his  home,  learned  to  esteem  him  very  highly 
for  his  works'  sake.  He  left  behind  him,  as  he  parted 
from  them,  a  memory  full  of  sweetness  and  of  blessing. 

449 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

None  knew  him  without  loving  him,  or  named  him 
without  a  kindly  word  of  praise. 

He  was  possessed  of  a  sound  and  safely  acting  mind, 
of  a  wise  judgment,  and  of  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
human  nature.  A  certain  quietness  and  modesty  char- 
acterized him,  which  prevented  his  pressing  his  views  and 
thoughts,  in  discussion  with  others,  after  the  vigorous 
manner  that  marks  many  men  of  the  more  self-assertive 
class.  But  when  he  expressed  his  opinions,  however 
unobtrusively,  they  were  recognized  as  worthy  of  con- 
sideration and  respect.  He  had,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  a 
certain  poetic  element  in  his  nature,  which  was  the  re- 
sult of  the  intermingling  of  thought  and  affection.  It 
was  the  poetry  of  a  loving,  thoughtful  soul.  In  friend- 
ship he  was  warm-hearted  and  generous.  In  all  his  as- 
sociation with  others  he  exhibited  the  virtues  of  the 
Christian  gentleman.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  enjoy 
his  friendly  regard  from  the  College  years  until  his 
death,  and  I  can  give  my  thought  of  him  no  more  fitly 
than  by  using  the  Scripture  words :  Of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven. 

After  twenty-four  years  of  service,  he  resigned  his 
membership  in  the  Corporation  in  1899,  because  of  the 
enfeebled  condition  of  his  health,  which  rendered  the 
further  discharge  of  its  duties,  as  he  thought,  no  longer 
possible.  It  was,  indeed,  only  at  my  urgent  solicitation 
that  he  consented  to  remain  in  his  office  until  the  time 
of  my  withdrawal  from  my  own.  He  lived  until  the 
4th  of  July,  1901,  and  then  the  end  came  for  him  as 
peacefully  and  quietly  as  he  could  have  wished. 

Hon.  William  Walter  Phelps  and  Mr.  Evarts  were 
the  only  members  of  the  Board  elected  by  the  graduates 
in  the  year  1872 — the  year  in  which  the  change  in  its 
constitution  took  effect — who  continued  in  office  later 
than  1886.  Mr.  Phelps  was,  perhaps,  the  most  ener- 
getic and  effective  person  among  the  Alumni  in  advo- 
450 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

eating  and  accomplishing  this  change.  For  this  reason, 
I  think,  there  was  a  very  general  sentiment  in  his  favor, 
when  the  question  respecting  candidates  presented  itself 
for  decision.  By  the  allotment  made  after  the  first  elec- 
tion, his  official  term  was  limited  to  two  years,  but  he 
was  subsequently  chosen  for  three  full  terms  in  suc- 
cession, so  that  his  membership  continued  until  1892, 
when  he  declined  a  re-election.  During  three  or  four 
years  previous  to  this  date,  he  was  the  Ambassador  of 
our  Government  in  Germany.  Because  of  this  fact  he 
was  prevented,  in  these  years,  from  attending  with  regu- 
larity the  meetings  of  the  Board.  His  interest  in  the 
University,  however,  did  not  in  any  degree  diminish 
while  he  was  thus  removed  from  it.  On  the  contrary, 
he  held  himself  ready  to  render  to  it  his  service  and 
help,  whenever  an  opportunity  offered.  Through  a  be- 
quest of  fifty  thousand  dollars  from  his  father,  the  late 
John  J.  Phelps,  and  one  of  the  same  amount  from  him- 
self to  which  generous  gifts  from  his  family  were  after- 
wards added,  the  very  imposing  and  highly  useful  build- 
ing which  includes  the  main  entrance  to  the  College 
quadrangle  and  bears  the  name  of  Phelps  Hall,  was 
erected  in  1896.  Mr.  Phelps  was  a  man  of  unusual 
ability,  and  as  a  member  of  the  National  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Errors  in  his 
own  State,  New  Jersey,  and  the  Minister  of  our  Gov- 
ernment at  two  of  the  principal  Courts  in  Europe,  Au- 
stria and  Germany,  he  had  a  career  of  distinction  by 
which  he  honored  the  University.  The  University  in  its 
turn,  recognized  him  as  one  of  its  prominent  graduates 
by  conferring  upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 
Mr.  Edward  G.  Mason,  as  related  to  the  College 
years,  was  of  the  same  class  with  Mr.  Phelps — the  class 
of  1860.  In  his  membership  of  the  Corporation,  he 
was  the  successor  of  Mr.  Evarts.  Much  interest  was 
felt  in  his  election,  on  account  of  the  fact  that  he  was  the 

45i 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

first  candidate  who  was  presented  as  a  representative 
of  the  graduates  residing  in  the  Northwestern  States. 
This  interest  was  deepened  for  his  many  friends  by  rea- 
son of  the  winsome  qualities  of  his  character  and  the 
freshness  of  an  almost  youthful  enthusiasm  which  was 
ever  manifest  in  him.  Few  men  have  gained  a  warmer 
affection  from  others  than  he  did.  He  seemed  to  all, 
even  at  their  first  meeting  with  him,  to  have  the  genuine 
manliness  of  a  true  man.  By  profession  he  was  a  lawyer, 
but  by  his  natural  gifts  and  tastes  he  was  a  scholar. 
He  devoted  himself  with  great  assiduity,  and  with  equal 
enjoyment,  to  historical  investigation,  especially  in  ref- 
erence to  the  early  history  of  the  region  of  country  in 
which  he  had  made  his  home.  As  one  of  the  Govern- 
ing Board  of  the  University  he  was  progressive  and  in- 
dependent in  his  views,  yet  there  was  no  disregard  for 
the  past  on  his  part — much  less  any  obstinate  or  con- 
tentious opposition  to  the  opinions  of  others,  who  might 
perchance,  at  the  time,  find  themselves  not  ready  to  be 
convinced.  He  was  a  man  whom  no  friend  could  meet 
without  being  moved  by  the  kindliest  feeling,  and  from 
whom  none  could  part  without  saying  to  himself: 
"Ned  Mason  (his  friends  always  called  him  so)  is  a 
manly  fellow."  The  name  which  we  all  gave  him,  even 
to  his  latest  years,  showed  how  the  ever-abiding  youth- 
fulness  of  his  nature  stirred  the  old  youthful  feeling  in 
ourselves. 

Mr.  Thomas  C.  Sloane  entered  the  Board  in  June, 
1889,  when  Mr.  William  W.  Farnam  had  just  been 
elected  the  University  Treasurer  and,  as  a  consequence, 
had  withdrawn  from  the  membership  which  he  had  held 
during  the  four  preceding  years.  Mr.  Sloane's  election 
seemed  to  me  at  the  time  and,  as  I  think,  to  the  officers 
of  the  institution  generally,  a  very  happy  event  and  one 
full  of  promise  for  the  future.  The  promise,  as  related 
to  continued  service,  was  not  realized,  since  he  lived 

452 


MEMORIES      OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

only  a  single  year  after  this,  but  the  fitness  of  the 
fact  that  he  was  chosen  to  the  membership  impresses 
my  mind  in  the  remembrance,  as  it  did  at  the  beginning. 
He  belonged  to  the  class  of  men  who  are  eminently 
fitted  for  an  office  of  this  order  in  a  great  institution  of 
learning.  He  had  the  intelligence  and  practical  wisdom 
which  are  so  greatly  to  be  desired.  Broad-mindedness 
towards  all  scholarship  was  characteristic  of  him,  as  well 
as  readiness  to  make  the  largest  possible  provision  for 
every  department  of  learning.  Unselfish  in  his  disposi- 
tion and  generous  in  his  impulses,  he  strengthened  and 
encouraged  those  who  were  associated  with  him  in  all 
their  best  efforts.  His  mind  turned  naturally  toward  the 
positive  side  of  things,  rather  than  the  negative.  For 
this  reason,  and  also  because  of  his  kindly  sentiment,  he 
was  free  from  all  petty  and  hurtful  criticism.  In  the 
moral  and  religious  well-being  of  the  members  of  the 
student  community  he  had  a  very  strong  interest.  His 
desire  for  their  true  culture  as  educated  men  was  equally 
manifest.  Such  a  man  was  needed  at  that  time.  Such 
men,  indeed,  are  needed  at  all  times.  It  is  a  happy 
fortune  when  they  are  secured. 

Among  the  benefactors  of  the  University  Mr.  Sloane 
and  his  brothers  hold  an  honorable  place.  The  bequest 
of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  which  he  made  by  his 
will  to  the  Corporation,  to  be  determined  in  its  uses  by 
their  wisdom,  and  which  was  afterwards  assigned  to 
the  University  Library  as  a  part  of  its  endowment,  is 
one  the  value  of  which  will  be  most  highly  appre- 
ciated in  all  coming  time.  His  other  bequest  of  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  for  purposes  connected  with  the  de- 
partment of  Physics  has  already  been  of  much  service — 
and  will  be  also  in  the  future — as  a  large  addition  to  the 
gift  made  by  him  in  connection  with  his  brother,  Mr. 
Henry  T.  Sloane,  in  1882,  for  the  erection  of  the  Physi- 
cal Laboratory  which  bears  their  family  name.  He  was 

453 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

also  during  his  lifetime  a  liberal  giver  to  the  University, 
as  his  brothers  likewise  have  been  on  different  occasions, 
for  other  objects  of  much  interest  and  importance.  In 
every  time  of  forward  movement  in  the  University, 
when  additions  to  its  means  were  needed  for  the  carry- 
ing out  of  plans  which  had  been  formed,  it  was  pleasant 
to  think  of  him  as  one  of  those  of  whose  sympathy  we 
could  be  assured. 

The  place  in  the  Board  which  was  made  vacant 
through  the  death  of  Mr.  Sloane  was  filled  by  the  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Buchanan  Winthrop,  of  the  Class  of  1862, 
as  his  successor.  Mr.  Winthrop  was  in  the  fullness  of 
health  and  vigor  at  the  time  when  I  withdrew  from  the 
Presidential  office;  but  as  he,  like  Dr.  Walker,  has 
passed  to  the  other  life  before  the  date  of  my  writing 
these  pages,  I  would  give  expression  here  to  my  kindly 
remembrance  of  him.  He  had,  I  think,  as  deep  and 
constant  an  interest  in  the  duties  of  his  position  and  their 
relation  to  the  welfare  of  the  University  as  any  one 
among  his  colleagues.  For  some  years  he  rendered  ser- 
vice as  a  member  of  the  Prudential  Committee  of  the 
Corporation.  This  service  involved  a  very  considerable 
acquaintance  with  the  details  of  the  affairs,  financial  and 
otherwise,  of  the  entire  institution.  It  also  called  for  the 
exercise  of  sound  judgment  and  discretion.  In  connec- 
tion with  the  plans  originated  in  1898  for  the  commem- 
oration of  the  Bicentennial  Anniversary  of  the  granting 
of  the  Charter  of  the  College,  he  manifested  much  zeal 
and  activity.  He  was  ardent  in  his  hopes  that  the  new 
century  -might  open  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  Uni- 
versity— and  this  in  its  outward,  as  well  as  in  its  inward 
life.  His  desire  was  very  strong  that  the  buildings 
which  were  proposed  to  be  erected — especially  the  Com- 
memorative Hall — should  have  architectural  fitness  and 
beauty.  They  should  be,  as  he  thought,  impressive  as 
academic  edifices  and  suggestive  of  academic  life.  With 

454 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

this  thought  and  desire  in  his  mind,  he  gladly  consented 
to  give  his  best  wisdom  and  efforts  for  the  realization  of 
what  seemed  of  so  much  importance.  There  was  no  one 
among  the  graduates  who  looked  forward  with  more 
pleasurable  anticipations,  than  he  did,  to  the  coming  of 
the  Memorial  Days.  There  was  no  one  who  could  have 
taken  a  greater  satisfaction  in  what  those  days  brought 
with  them,  when  they  came,  than  would  he,  if  his  life 
had  continued  as  all  who  knew  him  wished  that  it  might. 

In  his  personality  Mr.  Winthrop  had,  in  a  very  pe- 
culiar measure  and  degree,  the  appearance  of  a  refined 
gentleman.  In  social  intercourse  his  gentlemanly  bear- 
ing was  attractive  to  strangers  as  well  as  friends.  The 
prizes  which  he  established  in  the  College  for  the  en- 
couragement of  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  poets 
were  an  evidence  of  his  appreciation  of  Classical  scholar- 
ship and  his  interest  in  it  as  bearing  upon  the  best  cul- 
ture. He  believed  that  College  graduates  should  be 
truly  cultured  men. 

I  have  already  made  a  passing  allusion  to  Chief  Jus- 
tice Waite  in  connection  with  what  was  said  of  Mr. 
Evarts.  He  was  elected  to  his  membership  in  the 
Board  in  June,  1882,  and  held  the  position  until  his 
death,  which  occurred  on  the  23d  of  March,  1888.  As 
the  date  of  his  election  preceded  that  of  my  entrance 
into  the  Presidential  office  by  four  years,  my  association 
with  him  in  administrative  duties  was  limited  to  a  com- 
paratively brief  period.  The  knowledge  of  his  ability 
and  wisdom,  however,  which  was  easily  gained  through 
meeting  him  from  time  to  time,  assured  me  that  all 
who,  like  myself,  had  urged  or  advocated  his  candidacy 
at  the  beginning,  had  done  a  good  work  for  the  institu- 
tion. He  would  undoubtedly,  had  he  lived,  have  been 
re-elected  by  a  substantially  unanimous  vote  of  the  grad- 
uates. 

On  one  occasion,  as  I  well  remember,  he  was  most 

455 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

kindly,  as  well  as  efficiently  helpful  to  me,  and  also 
to  the  University.  It  was  at  a  time  when,  in  consequence 
of  the  death  of  Mr.  Kingsley,  the  Treasurer,  certain 
bonds  of  the  United  States  belonging  to  the  University 
needed  to  be  newly  registered.  The  facts  of  the  case, 
the  importance  of  the  new  registry,  and  the  request  of 
the  institution  were  made  known  to  the  authorities  at 
Washington  in  the  most  distinct  and  most  respectful 
manner,  and  the  question  as  to  what  steps  should  be 
taken  to  accomplish  the  end  in  view  was  asked.  A 
protracted  correspondence  ensued.  The  requirements 
deemed  necessary  were  communicated  to  me  in  reply  to 
my  inquiries,  and  were  complied  with.  Thereupon  new 
requirements  were  added,  and  these  were  met  in  detail. 
Officials  of  another  order  then  wrote  of  further  de- 
mands; and  so  on,  until  the  delays  connected  with 
bureaucratic  red-tape  became  such  as  to  make  one  doubt 
whether  the  difficulties  could  ever  be  removed  and  the 
bonds  recorded  as  our  own.  Finally — with  some  hesita- 
tion as  to  pressing  the  matter  upon  his  kind  attention — 
I  wrote  to  the  Chief  Justice.  Giving  him  a  full  account 
of  the  case  and  telling  him  that  the  labyrinthine  involve- 
ment seemed  well-nigh  inextricable,  I  requested  him  to 
go  to  the  Treasury  Department,  and  see  if  he  could  not 
induce  the  officials  to  take  some  final  action  in  the  mat- 
ter. Three  days  afterwards,  I  received  a  letter  from  the 
Department,  informing  me  that,  if  I  would  forward  the 
bonds,  they  would  be  returned  to  me  with  the  new  regis- 
try immediately.  Had  the  Chief  Justice  not  been, 
through  his  membership  in  the  Corporation,  a  connect- 
ing link  between  the  University  and  the  Government,  I 
fear  that  my  correspondence  with  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment might  have  continued  until  now. 

But  the  man  himself,  by  reason  of  his  presence  in  the 
Governing  Board,  was  more  to  the  University  than  he 
could  be  through  any  special  services  which  he  might 
456 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

render.  In  character,  in  mind,  in  honorable  and  noble 
personality,  he  was  fitted  to  impress  every  member  of 
the  academic  community,  and  to  move  all  towards  the 
highest  life. 

My  personal  association  with  all  these  gentlemen  and 
with  their  colleagues  who  still  survive — whether  in  the 
discharge  of  our  public  duties,  or  in  the  conferences 
of  friendly  acquaintance — was  a  part  of  the  happi- 
ness of  my  executive  official  life.  The  Corporation 
of  Yale  University,  as  I  knew  it  in  those  years,  was 
a  body  in  whose  membership  it  was  a  pleasure  to  have 
a  place. 


457 


XXIV. 

The  Development  of  the  University — 1886-99. 

THE  development  of  the  institution  in  the  lines 
of  its  more  outward  and  its  more  inward 
growth,  during  the  thirteen  years — 1886  to 
1899 — of  which  I  am  now  writing,  was  quite  beyond 
the  thought  of  its  officers  or  its  graduates  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  period.  I  desire  to  refer  to  it  briefly — not 
at  all  by  way  of  measurement  with  that  of  other  universi- 
ties, whether  the  advances  made  by  them  have  been 
greater  or  less  than  those  which  we  have  known — but 
only  in  its  connection  with  the  progress  of  the  half-cen- 
tury of  our  own  history  over  which  my  memories  ex- 
tend. The  review,  and  the  comparisons  attendant  upon 
it  must,  I  am  sure,  bring  encouragement  to  every  friend 
of  the  University  when  he  turns  his  mind  towards  the 
possibilities  awaiting  it  in  the  future. 

For  the  purpose  of  such  a  brief  review,  as  in  other 
relations  of  the  subject  already  noticed,  the  half-century 
may  be  fitly  regarded  as  having  its  opening  in  1846  and 
its  close  in  1899,  since  the  three  presidential  terms 
which  belonged  to  it  covered  the  period  included  be- 
tween these  two  dates.  The  three  terms  of  twenty-five, 
fifteen,  and  thirteen  years  respectively  may  also,  for  our 
comparison,  be  taken  as  the  sections  of  the  entire  era 
which  mark  its  progress ;  and  we  may  bring  the  matter 
before  us  in  the  best  way,  perhaps,  by  considering  it  with 
reference  to  the  number  of  students  in  attendance,  and 
of  officers  connected  with  the  work  of  instruction;  the 
buildings  provided  for  its  own  uses;  the  funds  and 
458 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

resources  at  its  command;  the  education  afforded  by  it; 
and  the  character  of  its  intellectual  and  religious  life. 

In  August,  1846,  when  President  Day  offered  his 
resignation  of  his  executive  office — that  is,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  history  of  the  half-century  that  has  recently 
come  to  its  end,  and  the  point  of  time  from  which  we 
make  our  measurement  of  progress — there  were  in  the 
entire  institution  five  hundred  and  eighty-seven  students. 
Twenty-five  years  later,  at  the  close  of  President  Wool- 
sey's  administration  in  1871,  the  total  membership,  as 
already  stated  on  an  earlier  page,  had  reached  the  num- 
ber of  seven  hundred  and  fifty-five.  The  increase  dur- 
ing this  period  was,  accordingly,  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight,  or  very  nearly  twenty-nine  per  cent.  When  Presi- 
dent Porter  retired,  in  1886,  the  whole  student  com- 
munity included  in  itself  one  thousand  and  seventy-six 
members.  An  addition  of  three  hundred  and  twenty- 
one  was  thus  realized  within  his  official  term,  beyond 
the  number  that  had  been  previously  enrolled,  and  the 
measure  of  the  growth  of  its  fifteen  years  was  close  upon 
forty-three  per  cent. 

If  we  turn  now  to  the  thirteen  years  from  1886  to 
1899,  and  bring  them  into  comparison  with  the  preced- 
ing periods,  we  find  that  the  increase  in  the  membership 
of  the  University  was  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  per 
cent. — the  number  of  students  in  the  academic  year 
1885-6  being  one  thousand  and  seventy-six,  and  that  of 
the  academic  year  1898-9  being  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  eleven.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  also,  that  the 
growth  thus  indicated  was  manifest  in  the  several  De- 
partments of  the  University  within  these  years.  The 
membership  of  the  College  or  Academical  Department 
increased  from  five  hundred  and  sixty-three  to  twelve 
hundred  and  twenty- four;  that  of  the  Scientific  School, 
in  its  undergraduate  classes  together  with  its  small  class 

459 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  special  students,  from  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
to  five  hundred  and  eight,  or  including  those  pursuing 
graduate  studies,  from  two  hundred  and  fifty-one  to 
five  hundred  and  sixty-seven;  that  of  the  three  profes- 
sional schools  from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  and 
ninety-nine;  that  of  the  Graduate  School  from  forty- 
two  to  two  hundred  and  eighty-three.  The  develop- 
ment in  each  of  the  first  three  cases  was  thus  twofold  or 
somewhat  more,  while  in  the  last-mentioned  school  it 
was  nearly  sevenfold.  The  Art  School  also  had  an  in- 
crease of  about  one-fourth  in  the  number  of  its  profes- 
sional pupils,  and  its  privileges  were  more  freely  offered 
to  students  in  the  College.  The  School  of  Music  was 
not  established  until  1892.  It  had  in  attendance  upon 
its  courses  in  1899  sixty  students  who  were  not  connected 
with  other  branches  of  the  University. 

These  brief  statements,  which  in  themselves  are  quite 
suggestive,  may  gain  a  certain  additional  emphasis,  as  I 
think,  if  we  call  to  mind  the  fact  that  of  the  entire 
number  of  graduates  of  the  institution,  in  all  its  de- 
partments, from  the  beginning  of  its  history  to  the  close 
of  the  academic  year  1899,  nearly  one-third  received 
their  degrees  within  these  thirteen  years,  while  of  the 
alumni  who  were  living  at  the  date  of  the  Bicentennial 
Anniversary  in  1901  one-half  were  graduates  during 
the  same  period. 

Passing  now  from  our  consideration  of  the  student 
community  in  order  to  observe  the  increase  in  the  mem- 
bership of  the  Faculty,  we  may  notice  that,  in  1846, 
there  were  in  all  the  departments  of  the  institution  twen- 
ty-one professors  and  permanent  officials,  including  the 
President,  together  with  fifteen  tutors  or  other  tempo- 
rary teachers,  connected  with  the  Board  of  Instruction. 
At  the  close  of  the  academic  year  1870-71,  the  total 
number  in  the  Board  was  sixty- four;  forty-five  being 
460 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

professors  or  gentlem  n  having  permanent  positions, 
while  nineteen  were  tutors  or  instructors  appointed  only 
for  a  limited  period.  The  body  of  permanent  officials, 
as  well  as  of  those  of  a  more  temporary  order,  was  so  far 
enlarged  by  successive  additions  during  the  fifteen  years 
following  1871,  that  in  June,  1886,  there  were  one 
hundred  and  fourteen  persons  enrolled  in  the  member- 
ship of  the  Board.  Of  these  persons  seventy-six  held 
professorships,  assistant  professorships,  or  positions  of  a 
somewhat  similar  character,  and  thirty-eight  had  been 
called  to  render  service  as  instructors  for  a  more  or  less 
definite  term.  Between  1886  and  1899  the  enlargement 
was  still  further  manifest,  and  in  the  last-named  year 
there  were  in  the  Faculty  of  the  University  one  hundred 
and  twenty  officers  of  the  former  class  and  one  hundred 
and  forty  of  the  latter.  The  total  number  at  the  end 
of  these  thirteen  years,  accordingly,  was  two  hundred 
and  sixty  as  compared  with  one  hundred  and  fourteen 
at  the  beginning.  The  increase  in  the  membership  of 
the  Board  of  Instruction  within  this  period  was  thus 
very  nearly  the  same  with  that  of  the  student  body — the 
numbers  in  each  case  being  about  two  and  one-third 
times  as  large  in  1899  as  they  were  in  1886. 

By  reason  of  this  very  marked  enlargement  of  the 
teaching  force,  new  opportunities  for  study  and  investi- 
gation were  opened,  and  in  some  cases  the  number  of 
professors  in  a  particular  department  of  instruction  was 
doubled  or  more  than  doubled.  The  advantages  af- 
forded to  students  were  in  this  way  greatly  increased, 
and  a  very  helpful  division  of  labors  among  the  teachers 
was  rendered  possible. 

The  buildings  belonging  to  and  occupied  by  the  insti- 
tution in  August,  1846,  were,  including  the  President's 
house,  fourteen  in  number.     Of  these,  four  were  erected 
in  the  time  of  Dr.  Dwight's  administration;  four  at  an 
461 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

earlier  period,  between  1752  and  1793;  and  six  within 
the  official  term  of  President  Day.  To  these  buildings, 
as  indicated  in  the  brief  review  which  has  been  given  of 
the  service  rendered  to  the  College  by  Drs.  Woolsey  and 
Porter,  eight  were  added  while  the  former  held  the 
Presidential  office,  and  nine  in  the  years  when  the  latter 
had  the  same  position.  The  only  two  of  the  entire 
number  which  were  not  standing  in  July,  1886,  were 
the  President's  house  and  the  old  Divinity  Hall.  In 
connection  with  the  carrying  out  of  the  plan  of  the 
quadrangle,  however,  six  of  the  older  buildings  were 
removed  between  1886  and  1899;  and  thus  twenty- 
three  were  still  standing  at  the  close  of  this  period. 

Within  these  thirteen  years,  seventeen  buildings  were 
added  to  those  already  possessed  by  the  University.  Of 
this  number,  five  were  erected  on  the  College  square,  and 
by  this  means  the  quadrangular  arrangement  was  com- 
pleted, preparatory  to  the  removal  of  what  remained  of 
the  older  Brick  Row.  These  five  buildings  bear  the 
names  of  the  donors — The  Chittenden  University  Li- 
brary building;  Phelps  Hall  and  Osborn  Hall,  devoted 
to  purposes  connected  with  undergraduate  college  in- 
struction; Welch  Hall  and  Vanderbilt  Hall,  which  are 
dormitories  for  students  of  the  College  department. 
Berkeley  Hall,  Pierson  Hall,  and  White  Hall,  which 
are  College  dormitories,  and  the  Kent  Chemical  Labor- 
atory, are  buildings  outside  of  the  quadrangle,  but 
are  designed  for  the  uses  of  the  Academical  Col- 
lege. The  first  two  of  these  were  erected  by  the  Cor- 
poration and  were  named  in  commemoration  of  Bishop 
Berkeley,  and  of  Rector  Pierson,  the  first  Presi 
dent.  The  third  and  fourth  have  the  names  of  the 
gentlemen  who  gave  them  to  the  institution.  Winchester 
Hall,  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Winchester,  in  memory  of  her 
husband,  Lieutenant-Governor  Winchester;  Sheffield 
Chemical  Laboratory;  and  the  Biological  Laboratory 


M  £ 


o  m 

I 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LiFE     AND     MEN 

belong  to  the  Scientific  School.  The  first  section  of 
the  building  now  called  Hendrie  Hall  was  built  for  the 
Law  Department,  and  the  Medical  School  Laboratory 
for  the  purposes  of  that  School.  The  Gymnasium  and 
the  Infirmary,  the  means  for  the  erection  of  which  were 
provided  by  graduates  and  friends  of  the  institution,  and 
the  College  Street  Hall,  purchased  by  the  Corporation, 
are  University  buildings.  The  Battell  Chapel  was  also 
much  enlarged  within  this  period,  the  expense  being 
met  by  a  gift  from  the  late  Robbins  Battell.  The  seven- 
teen buildings  mentioned  as  newly  added  constitute  one- 
half  of  the  entire  number  secured  for  the  institution  in 
the  half-century  the  history  and  progress  of  which  we 
are  now  briefly  considering. 

As  I  thus  refer  to  these  buildings  which  are  so  essen- 
tial to  the  University  in  its  enlarging  life,  and  which  so 
greatly  contribute  toward  making  its  home  worthy  of 
itself,  I  would  express  my  most  sincere  and  grateful 
appreciation  of  the  special  gifts  which,  in  the  case  of 
most  of  them,  rendered  their  erection  possible.  The 
munificence  of  the  honored  friends  whose  benefactions 
made  the  closing  years  of  the  century  conspicuous  in 
Yale's  history,  in  this  regard,  can  never  be  forgotten. 

With  equal  gratitude,  I  would  on  these  pages  com- 
memorate the  abundant  generosity  of  each  and  all  of 
those  large-hearted  men  and  women  who,  by  their  gifts 
or  bequests  in  these  years,  increased  the  resources  of  the 
institution — thus  widening  the  sphere  of  its  teaching 
and  aiding  it,  in  different  lines,  in  its  work  for  education 
and  scholarship.  What  they  have  done,  all  of  them  with 
the  same  kindly  sentiment  will  bear  rich  fruit  for  our 
University  and  for  its  sons  in  the  coming  generations. 

The  permanent  funds  of  the  University  in  July,  1886, 
amounted  to  two  million  one  hundred  and  eleven  thou- 
sand dollars.  In  July,  1899,  they  had  increased  to  four 

463 


MEMORIES    OF    YALE    LIFE    AND    MEN 

million  five  hundred  and  fifty-four  thousand  dollars,  or 
in  other  words,  two  million  four  hundred  and  forty- 
three  thousand  dollars  had  been  added  in  the  interven- 
ing period.  The  sum  of  the  endowments  was  thus  en- 
larged, within  these  thirteen  years,  by  a  more  than  two- 
fold increment.  The  gifts  received  for  the  erection  of 
new  buildings  in  the  same  years  were  very  nearly  two 
millions  of  dollars,  and  if  to  these  sums  already  men- 
tioned the  donations  and  subscriptions  for  the  Bicenten- 
nial Funds  which  were  secured  before  the  middle  of  the 
year  1899,  together  with  the  gifts  for  the  income  of  the 
University  in  the  period  and  for  special  objects  of 
interest  of  a  minor  character,  be  added,  the  total  amount 
obtained  will  be  found  to  be  somewhat  more  than  five 
millions.  The  income  derived  from  investments  and 
from  fees  paid  by  students,  which  in  1886  was  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-three  thousand  dollars,  amounted  in  1899 
to  seven  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars.  The 
increase  in  the  endowment  and  the  income  of  the  insti- 
tution, and  in  the  number  of  buildings  occupied  by  it, 
was  substantially  equal,  in  proportion,  to  that  which 
has  been  already  noticed  with  respect  to  the  community 
of  students  and  the  membership  of  the  boards  of  instruc- 
tion. 

For  myself  personally,  I  may  say  that  there  was  one 
special  cause  of  satisfaction  as  related  to  the  marked 
enlargement  of  the  University  resources  during  these 
thirteen  years.  The  increase  in  the  permanent  funds, 
like  that  of  the  student  company,  was  confined  to  no 
single  department,  but  was  happily  shared  by  each  and 
all.  Not  only  this;  but  more  adequate  provision  was 
made  for  almost  every  branch  of  study,  as  well  as  for 
meeting  the  demands  of  the  age  in  the  other  and  various 
lines  of  the  institution's  life.  As  my  controlling  thought 
on  behalf  of  Yale  was  that  of  the  University  and  its 
upbuilding,  and  as  the  consequent  outgoing  of  my  de- 
464 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

sires  was  for  its  well-being  in  all  its  parts  and  success  in 
all  its  work,  I  could  only  be  grateful  that  so  much  was 
accomplished  for  the  realization  of  this  thought  and 
these  desires. 

With  reference  to  the  education  afforded  by  the  Uni- 
versity it  is  scarcely  possible,  within  the  limits  of  this 
volume,  to  present  a  detailed  record  of  progress  during 
the  half-century  which  has  just  closed.  Certain  great 
advances  have  been  made,  however,  and  marked  changes 
introduced,  the  mention  of  which  will  render  the  char- 
acter of  the  development  manifest. 

The  most  striking  change  wrought  within  the  period, 
so  far  as  the  undergraduate  college  curriculum  is  con- 
cerned, is  that  connected  with  the  elective  system.  No 
thought  of  systematizing  optional  studies  in  courses  pre- 
paratory for  graduation  seems  to  have  entered  the  minds 
of  the  authorities  and  teachers  of  the  institution  fifty  or 
even  forty  years  ago.  The  beginning  of  the  movement 
in  this  direction,  indeed,  as  related  to  definite  and  per- 
manent results,  may  be  placed  near  the  opening  of  the 
last  quarter  of  the  century.  In  the  widening  of  the 
opportunities  of  study  in  special  lines,  the  extension  of 
the  system  was  very  noteworthy  between  the  years  1886 
and  1899.  A  comparison  of  the  schedules  of  studies  in 
these  two  years,  as  presented  in  the  University  Cata- 
logues of  the  time,  will  make  this  evident  to  any  one 
who  will  give  his  attention  to  the  subject. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  or  wish  to  discuss  here  the  relative 
merits  of  the  old  and  new  systems,  viewed  as  a  whole 
and  in  contrast  with  each  other.  But  that  the  change 
from  the  former  time  has  been  a  radical  one  cannot  be 
denied.  A  graduate  of  1850  or  1860,  or  even  of  1870, 
who — if  that  were  possible — should,  without  any  previ- 
ous knowledge  of  what  had  happened,  return  to  the 
institution  in  the  present  year  for  the  first  time  after  his 

465 


MEMORIES      OF      YALE      LIFE      AND      MEN 

graduation,  would  certainly  find  himself  in  a  new  world 
in  this  regard.  The  Yale  of  the  former  days  would  seem 
to  have  passed  away,  and  a  strange  college  of  another 
order  to  have  taken  its  place.  If,  however,  he  were  a 
thoughtful  man,  with  a  mind  open  to  large  and  wide 
observation,  he  would,  as  I  cannot  doubt — though  pos- 
sibly after  a  regretful  hour  or  two  of  looking  backward 
— appreciate  the  significance  of  one  great  fact  connected 
with  the  change,  to  which  I  have  elsewhere  briefly  al- 
luded. The  very  remarkable  enlargement  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  acquisition  would  be  so  impressive  as  to  lead 
him  to  count  the  student  of  the  later  years  fortunate  in 
his  era. 

Contemporaneous  with,  and  in  part  at  least  attendant 
upon,  the  growth  of  the  elective  system,  another  impor- 
tant change  has  made  its  appearance  in  our  College  edu- 
cational scheme  and  methods.  The  old  custom,  which 
simply  demanded  of  the  student  that  he  should  le^rn 
an  assigned  lesson  from  a  text-book,  and  be  prepared  to 
answer  such  questions  connected  with  it  as  might  be  pre- 
sented to  him  by  his  instructor  in  the  recitation-room, 
has  given  place,  in  large  measure,  to  a  new  order  of 
things.  We  learned  from  a  book  in  the  older  time. 
Our  successors  of  to-day  learn  much  more,  in  compari- 
son, from  the  living  teacher.  No  one,  as  I  think,  can 
question  the  beneficial  influence  of  this  change.  The  in- 
struction of  the  lecture  or  recitation  room  takes  easily, 
in  consequence,  a  wider  range  and  becomes  more  inspir- 
ing. The  teacher  places  more  successfully  before  his 
pupil  and  within  his  reach  whatever  may  be  most  helpful 
to  him.  In  every  way  the  student  is  brought  more  fully 
within  the  genuine  scholarly  life. 

The  elective  system,  in  its  development,  has  also,  as 

a  matter  of  course,  had  a  tendency  to  bring  together  in 

particular  studies  those  who  have  an  interest  in  them  or, 

at  least,  a  willingness  to  pursue  them,  and  to  exclude 

466 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

others  for  whom  they  have  no  attraction.  The  dead 
weight  resting  upon  the  instructors,  and  likewise  upon 
the  interested  students,  which  is  occasioned  by  the  pres- 
ence of  such  as  have  no  heart  in  the  matter,  is  conse- 
quently lightened  or  removed.  What  Dr.  Woolsey  used 
sometimes,  with  impressive  emphasis,  to  call  the  tail  of 
the  class — the  tail  which  has  not  even  happiness  or 
energy  enough  connected  with  its  life  to  put  itself  in 
motion — is  the  most  dreadful  attendant  upon  the  teacher 
in  his  work.  How  often  he  wishes,  for  his  own  comfort, 
that  it  might  be  cut  off,  or  given  to  some  one  else  in 
whose  keeping  it  might  learn  to  move,  or  might  move 
in  its  way  to  learning. 

The  elective  system  is  the  remedy,  or  at  least  the 
partial  remedy,  for  this  evil.  Its  tendency  is,  after  the 
method  of  good  old  Dr.  Hawes,  to  remove  the  cause. 
The  memory  of  my  early  days  as  a  college  teacher  brings 
up  before  my  mind  some  of  my  own  trials  and  wrestlings 
with  this  matter.  How  could  the  earnest  and  the  careless, 
the  willing  and  the  unwilling  men  in  my  classes  be  put 
apart  from  one  another?  But  there  was  no  solution  of 
the  difficulty.  It  seems  strange  enough,  to-day — yet,  as 
I  am  writing,  I  recall  the  fact  that,  as  late  as  somewhere 
in  the  early  sixties,  I  ventured  to  suggest  to  three  or 
four  of  the  leading  gentlemen  in  the  Academical  Faculty 
the  question,  whether  the  classes  could  not  be  divided  for 
their  studies  according  to  their  rank  as  scholars,  instead 
of  being  arranged,  as  they  then  were,  by  an  alphabetical 
division.  But  they  all  agreed  in  the  opinion  that  such 
a  change  would  be  quite  impracticable.  It  was  made, 
however,  and  safely  and  happily  made,  before  the  sixties 
were  ended.  There  are  frequent  evidences  in  human 
experience  that  men  do  not  always  nor  easily  foresee  the 
future.  But  the  elective  system  has,  in  its  measure, 
realized  for  us  a  more  complete  solution  of  the  difficulty. 
It  is  a  solution  also  which,  while  it  relieves  the  teacher 

467 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  his  trial,  may  be  of  benefit  rather  than  injury  to  the 
pupil,  for  there  are  cases,  perhaps  many  in  number, 
where  the  pupil  who  cannot  be  moved  in  one  study  may 
be  awakened  to  interest  in  another. 

But  quite  apart  from  this  system  or  any  question  re- 
specting its  merits, — the  young  man,  by  reason  of  the 
requirements  of  the  entrance  examinations,  begins  his 
college  course  at  an  advanced  stage  of  preparatory 
studies  as  compared  with  his  predecessors.  He  finds, 
also,  throughout  his  course,  a  wider  outlook  offered  him 
in  all  the  spheres  of  knowledge  that  are  opened;  he  has 
facilities  for  prosecuting  his  work  which  were  unknown 
in  the  earlier  time;  he  is  brought  under  the  influence  of 
impelling  forces  by  reason  of  which  his  w'orking  energy 
may  be  continually  quickened.  If  he  consecrates  himself 
to  the  duties  and  fitly  uses  the  privileges  which  belong 
within  the  college  period,  he  cannot  fail  to  be,  in  his 
knowledge  and  acquirements  at  the  end  of  his  course,  in 
advance  of  those  who  have  gone  before  him  in  their 
undergraduate  career.  The  familiar  acquaintance  with 
the  more  scholarly  members  of  the  student  company 
which  my  associates  in  the  Faculty  had  in  the  recent 
years  will  lead  them,  I  am  sure,  to  confirm  the  truth  of 
this  statement. 

As  I  turned  my  thoughts  and  inquiries  in  every  direc- 
tion during  the  period  now  especially  under  review — 
looking  out  from  the  central  point  of  the  University — I 
could  not  help  feeling  that  the  institution  was  growing 
in  its  provisions  and  opportunities  in  this  regard  as 
truly  as  it  was  in  the  things  pertaining  to  the  outward 
sphere.  The  growth  awakened  my  own  scholarly  en- 
thusiasm, as  with  a  new  impulse,  and  I  often  wished  that 
I  could  place  myself  as  a  listener  in  every  lecture-room, 
and  open  my  mind  on  every  side  to  the  incoming  of  the 
new  knowledge  of  the  new  era.  I  would  that  every 
student  in  the  University  might  have  somewhat  of  the 


l 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

same  awakening — that  he  might  be  moved,  as  its  conse- 
quence, to  take  to  himself,  in  his  early  life,  of  the 
abundance  which  is  offered,  and  thus  might  know,  in  and 
for  himself,  the  riches  of  that  wide-extended  education 
which  will  bring  him  fullness  of  power,  as  well  as  the 
never-failing  presence  of  happy  thoughts. 

In  the  Scientific  School  the  elective  system  has,  from 
its  first  introduction,  been  limited  in  its  scope  to  a  selec- 
tion among  courses  of  study  definitely  grouped  and  clas- 
sified for  the  Junior  and  Senior  years.  This  arrange- 
ment, as  contrasted  with  that  which  extends  the  oppor- 
tunities of  choice  for  the  individual  pupil  to  a  wide 
circle  of  particular  studies  which  may  not  be  closely 
related  to  one  another,  is  rendered  necessary  by  the  gen- 
eral purpose  of  the  education  which  the  school  offers. 
The  development  of  the  later  years  has,  accordingly, 
been  along  the  lines  of  the  original  plan,  but  it  has  been 
marked  by  noticeable  advances  in  connection  with  the 
progress  of  the  era.  The  growth  of  the  school  in  re- 
spect to  all  the  excellent  work  which  pertains  to  its 
sphere  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  facts  of  our  recent 
history.  The  number  of  students  enrolled  in  its  mem- 
bership in  1899  was  equal  to  that  enrolled  in  1886  in 
the  Academical  Department. 

The  relations  of  the  School  of  the  Fine  Arts  to  the 
Undergraduate  College  became  during  this  period  much 
closer  than  at  any  earlier  time,  and  its  helpful  influence 
for  the  entire  University  as  well  as  for  the  education  of 
its  students  was  more  fully  -realized.  We  may  hope 
that,  in  the  future,  the  elevating  power  of  art  will  be 
witnessed  in  connection  with  all  the  other  studies  of  the 
higher  order,  and  that  thus  the  educated  men  of  the 
coming  generations  will  be  broadened  and  uplifted  in 
their  intellectual  life.  The  development  of  our  Art 
School  and  the  foundation  of  our  School  of  Music 
within  these  years  are  certainly  evidences  of  progress, 
469 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  this  view  of  education,  which  must  be  appreciated  by 
every  true  friend  of  the  University  and  of  the  best  cul- 
ture. I  am  glad  to  have  seen,  during  my  own  term  of 
service,  the  beginning  of  what  has  so  large  promise  of 
good  in  itself. 

The  courses  in  the  Schools  of  Medicine  and  Law 
were  lengthened,  during  this  period,  by  the  addition  of 
a  year  in  each  case,  so  that  four  years  of  study  were  re- 
quired for  the  attainment  of  a  degree  in  the  former,  and 
three  in  the  latter.  The  introduction  of  the  modern  sys- 
tem of  medical  training  in  our  University  reaches  back 
in  its  date  to  1879,  but  the  more  complete  provision  for 
carrying  forward  the  work  connected  with  it  was  most 
successfully  made  only  after  the  year  1895-96.  In  the 
Law  Department  the  plan  of  studies  was  adjusted  to  the 
new  arrangement  in  1896.  In  both  of  these  schools  the 
Board  of  Instructors  was  considerably  increased  and  the 
standard  of  admission  was  raised.  In  the  Department 
of  Theology  a  number  of  optional  courses  were  added 
to  the  required  curriculum,  in  which  what  is  called  "  the 
seminary  method  "  of  original  research  was  adopted. 
With  the  advance  of  learning  in  all  branches  of  profes- 
sional study,  the  opportunities  for  the  best  and  most 
valuable  education  have  been  enlarged,  and  in  no  re- 
spect, perhaps,  more  than  in  the  line  of  individual  and 
independent  investigation  to  which  the  student  is  en- 
couraged to  devote  a  portion  of  his  time  and  for  which 
he  is  held  responsible.  This  is  true  in  the  undergraduate 
departments  also,  in  their  measure,  though  the  possibili- 
ties here  may,  perchance,  not  be  as  great  as  in  the 
schools  which  receive  the  students  at  a  later  stage  of 
their  progress. 

The  development  of  the  entire  plan  of  the  Graduate 

School  has  certainly  been  very  remarkable.     It  has  kept 

pace  with  the  great  increase  in  the  membership  of  the 

school,  as  well  as  with  the  rapid  progress  in  all  lines  of 

470 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

investigation.  Whatever  may  be  said  as  to  the  com- 
parative advantages  for  young  men  in  their  undergradu- 
ate career  of  the  elective  and  required  systems,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  former  is  the  one  demanded 
for  those  who  have  already  received  the  Bachelor's  de- 
gree, and  who  desire  to  pursue  non-professional  courses 
for  a  time.  As  wide-extended  opportunities  as  possible 
should  be  opened  to  such  advanced  students,  so  that  the 
wishes  and  best  impulses  of  each  and  all  may  be  satis- 
fied. How  much  was  accomplished  for  the  realization 
of  this  most  desirable  end,  during  the  years  specially 
referred  to,  may  be  seen  by  any  one  who  will  examine 
the  courses  offered  in  those  years,  and  will  be  more  im- 
pressively manifest  as  one  considers  the  service  for  edu- 
cation which  has  been  already  rendered  by  men  who 
have  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  pursuing  these  studies. 

Within  these  years  also,  the  influence  of  the  Graduate 
School  upon  the  general  scholarly  life  of  the  University 
has  been  largely  increased,  and  has  become  exceedingly 
helpful,  through  the  formation  of  clubs  established  for 
special  investigation  and  study  in  various  departments 
of  science  and  learning,  and  provided  with  depart- 
mental libraries  and  rooms  for  the  membership  in  which 
they  can  meet  for  discussion  or  carry  on  individual  work. 

As  we  turn  finally,  in  our  brief  review  of  the  half- 
century,  to  a  comparison,  or  an  estimate  of  progress,  in 
respect  to  the  intellectual  and  religious  life  of  the  insti- 
tution, we  may  well  bear  in  mind  certain  changes  that 
have  marked  the  advance  of  the  age.  The  entire  move- 
ment of  men  in  both  spheres  of  their  living,  as  I  think 
we  may  fairly  say,  is  more  external  now,  whereas  it  was 
more  internal  fifty  years  ago.  Certainly,  this  is  true  of 
the  religious  life.  It  is  true  in  this  sphere,  and  emphati- 
cally so,  even  if  we  limit  our  comparison  to  the  years 
from  1875  to  the  end  of  the  century.  The  thought  of 

471 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  personal  soul  of  the  individual  man — how  it  is  de- 
veloping— is  less  prominent  than  it  was  in  the  earlier 
days.  What  are  its  outgoings  in  efforts  for  other  men  ? 
is  the  question  that  is  now  asked  with  all  interest,  and 
with  constant  repetition.  The  evidence  of  love  to  God  is 
sought  for  and  discovered  through  its  manifestation  of 
itself  in  love  to  mankind.  To  many,  if  not  most  minds 
this  change  seems,  in  and  of  itself,  to  be  an  indication  of 
progress  towards  the  highest  Christian  ideal.  Whether 
this  be  the  fact  or  not,  however,  our  judgment  with 
reference  to  present  and  past  conditions  must  take  ac- 
count of  the  change. 

In  close  relation  to  what  has  just  been  mentioned, 
and  in  some  measure  at  least  as  a  consequence  of  it,  a 
much  more  complete  system  of  organized  religious  work 
has  been  instituted  in  the  more  recent  years.  There  was 
indeed  no  organization  half  a  century  ago — none,  that 
is  to  say,  beyond  what  is  necessarily  involved  in  the  fra- 
ternal union  of  classmates  and  the  fellowship  of  the 
College  Church.  Earnest  Christian  effort  was  often 
put  forth  by  individuals  on  behalf  of  their  associates  and 
friends.  Not  unfrequently  such  effort  was  made  more 
effective — and  this  was  always  the  case  in  seasons  of  re- 
vivals or  special  awakening — through  a  voluntary  com- 
bination of  a  small  number  of  religious  men  continuing 
for  a  time.  But  the  organized  Christian  Associations 
of  the  present  era  were  entirely  unknown.  These  origi- 
nated in  our  University  twenty  years  afterwards,  and 
their  most  vigorous  life  here  has  pertained  to  the  last 
fifteen  years.  Dwight  Hall,  the  existence  of  which  has 
contributed  very  greatly  to  all  that  has  since  been  ac- 
complished, was  opened  and  dedicated  to  its  uses  in 
September,  1886.  The  extension  of  religious  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  students  among  the  working  classes  of 
the  city  is  largely  the  result  of  influences  connected  with 
Dwight  Hall. 

472 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

Another  change  which  may  be  noticed  has  relation 
to  the  approach  toward  and  development  in  the  religious 
life  in  the  case  of  the  individual  man.  Such  approach 
and  development  are  attended  by  much  less  difficulty, 
and  by  no  means  so  many  hindrances  of  a  certain  char- 
acter, as  compared  with  what  was  true  of  the  earlier 
period.  I  refer  to  the  hindrances  which  were  occa- 
sioned by  the  theological  and  Christian  thought  of  the 
former  time.  The  legal  side  of  Divine  truth,  rather 
than  the  loving  side,  was  then  presented,  and  the  gate- 
way of  the  new  life  was  oftentimes  made  so  narrow 
that  even  the  most  serious  souls  were  fearful  as  to  their 
entrance.  Religion  became,  in  undue  measure,  intro- 
vertive  in  its  character,  and  self-examination  was  at- 
tendant upon  every  stage  of  growth.  The  change  in 
this  regard  was  beginning  to  make  itself  manifest  in  my 
undergraduate  years;  but  it  was  only  beginning.  The 
Christian  life  of  to-day  is  happier  for  thoughtful  men 
than  it  was.  The  winsomeness  of  the  Church  for  those 
who  are  turning  towards  that  life  is  greater. 

Bearing  these  changes  and  others  which  might  be 
mentioned  in  mind,  I  think  we  may  say  that,  while  our 
University  has  always  been  an  institution  in  which  Chris- 
tianity has  had  a  living  and  powerful  influence,  no  period 
in  its  history  has  witnessed  a  more  pervasive  and  con- 
trolling force  as  pertaining  to  it,  nor  a  more  continuous 
and  earnest  forthputting  of  its  energy,  than  has  this  of 
which  I  am  now  writing.  If  the  religious  ideas  of  the 
age,  as  I  have  referred  to  them,  are  founded  in  truth, 
the  Christian  life  of  the  University,  as  of  the  larger 
world  outside  of  it,  is  moving  forward  towards  the  ideal 
of  the  future. 

It  is  very  difficult — if  indeed  it  be  possible — for  a 
graduate  of  fifty  years  standing  to  give  an  accurate 
judgment  as  to  the  intellectual  life  of  college  students 

473 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  to-day  in  comparison  with  that  of  his  own  contempo- 
raries in  their  youth.  Such  a  graduate  is  apt  to  forget 
precisely  what  he  and  his  companions  were,  and  just 
how  far  advanced  was  his  and  their  development  within 
the  undergraduate  period.  Life  moves  onward  with  a 
growth  as  silent  as  it  is  gradual,  and  we  fail  to  keep  our 
early  selves  in  vivid  remembrance.  The  young  man 
of  the  present  hour  stands  out  very  clearly  before  our 
vision,  but  the  young  man  of  the  past  is  afar  off;  and 
through  the  dim  light  of  the  years  he  often  seems  to 
have  been  almost  the  same  that  he  is  now  in  mature  and 
advanced  age.  This  is  one  of  life's  deceptions,  coming 
to  us  all.  It  is  kindred  to  that  which  cheats  us  as  to 
our  years,  so  that  though  the  fathers  seemed  to  us  to 
be  fifty  or  seventy,  when  they  were  so,  we  have  no 
thought  that  these  figures  tell  the  same  story  for  our- 
selves. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  think  that  the  kindly  feeling 
which  is  characteristic  of  genuine  and  generous  advanc- 
ing age  tends  to  make  us  overestimate  the  mental  work 
and  attainments  of  the  youth  of  the  later  generation. 
We  become  thus  liable  to  fall  into  an  opposite  error,  or 
an  opposite  sort  of  forgetfulness ;  and  while  we  were, 
at  first,  losing  our  memory  of  the  past  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, thinking  more  highly  of  ourselves  as  college 
youths  than  we  ought  to  think,  we  are  now  putting  too 
low  an  estimate  upon  our  powers  by  reason  of  the  same 
loss  of  distinct  remembrance. 

In  some  hours  of  reasonable  and  calm  reflection, 
however,  the  older  man  may  so  balance  his  mind  and 
thought  that  the  two  opposite  tendencies  shall  counteract 
each  other,  and  that  his  judgment  shall  be  of  value  as 
in  accordance  with  the  truth.  If  I  may  venture  to 
believe  that,  as  I  write  these  words,  I  am  passing 
through  such  an  hour,  I  would  say  that  the  best  intel- 
lectual efforts  and  productions  of  our  Yale  undergrad- 

474 


< 
w 
P* 

Q    00 

£g 
<  ^ 

' 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

uates  of  to-day  appear  to  me  to  be  in  advance  of  those 
of  the  earlier  period.  This  is  the  impression  left  upon 
my  mind  as  I  have,  in  successive  years,  listened  to  the 
essays  or  addresses  of  students  prepared  for  public  occa- 
sions. The  result  which  we  may  naturally  expect  in 
view  of  the  wider  range  of  knowledge  opened  to  the 
college  man  in  these  days,  and  of  the  larger  opportunities 
for  instruction  and  influence  in  the  sphere  of  literature 
afforded  by  the  provisions  of  our  present  courses  of 
study,  is  thus  seen  to  be  in  a  true  measure  realized.  The 
fitness  f.or  higher  studies,  and  the  activity  and  earnest- 
ness, which  are  exhibited  by  those  who  enter  our  Grad- 
uate School  must  also  be  regarded  as  indicating  truly 
awakened  mental  life  in  the  students  of  the  College 
years.  In  this  school,  certainly,  and  in  the  departments 
of  the  University  which  fit  men  for  the  professions  and 
for  the  scientific  sphere,  there  is  an  intellectual  interest 
characteristic  of  our  graduates  which  gives  rich  promise 
for  their  future  career;  and  we  may  find  satisfaction  in 
the  progress  of  the  University  in  this  regard,  even  as 
we  find  it  in  other  lines  of  its  life. 

There  is,  however,  in  the  intellectual,  as  well  as  in 
the  religious,  life  of  the  present  era  an  external  move- 
ment beyond  what  was  known  in  the  former  time,  and 
this  outward  tendency  has  become  increasingly  manifest 
in  the  latest  years.  The  mental  effort  which  looks 
towards  results  in  the  external  world — in  public,  or 
social,  or  business  life — has  taken  in  larger  measure, 
even  for  educated  men,  the  place  of  that  which  turns 
to  the  inward  sphere  and  satisfies  itself  there.  This  is 
in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  when  we  try  to  answer  our  question.  This 
question  is,  whether  the  intellectual  life  of  the  academic 
community  and,  as  a  consequence,  of  those  who  go  forth 
from  it  as  graduates,  is  better  developed,  stronger,  more 
active  to-day,  than  it  was  years  ago;  not  whether  its 

475 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

movement  is  in  one  direction  or  another.  We  are  in 
the  outward  age  now.  The  fathers  were  more  within 
the  limits  of  the  inward  one.  The  movements  in  both 
are  good.  We  may  hope  that  the  coming  time  will 
unite  the  two,  and  bring  them  more  fully  into  harmony. 
In  view  of  all  the  results,  in  different  spheres,  which 
have  thus  been  set  forth,  I  think  we  may  fitly  say  that 
the  academic  life  of  the  century  was  happily  completed 
in  these  its  closing  years,  and  that  the  University  was 
made  ready  for  the  new  age. 


476 


XXV. 

Questions  of  the  Future. 

AS  we  whose  career  belongs  mainly  to  the  half- 
century  which  is  past  look  forward  to  the  one 
which  is  to  come,  it  is  befitting,  I  think,  that 
we  have  as  much  trustfulness  with  reference  to  those 
who  follow  us  as  we  asked  for  ourselves  when  we 
assumed  the  responsibilities  of  our  own  life-work.  Men 
are  adapted  to  the  particular  era  in  which  they  live. 
Through  the  influences  that  it  carries  in  itself  and  all 
its  educating  forces,  it  renders  them  fit  to  be  the  workers 
or,  perchance,  the  guides  that  it  needs  and  demands. 
So  it  has  proved  to  be  in  our  own  case,  so  far  as  we  have 
been  adequate  to  the  positions  which  we  have  filled  and 
the  duties  that  they  involved.  But  as  time  moves  for- 
ward and  changes  come,  there  is  a  call  for  service  of  a 
different  character.  The  new  has  its  beginning  from 
the  old,  indeed,  and  rests  upon  what  has  been  already 
accomplished,  but  it  does  not  and  cannot  abide  in  the 
old.  Ideas  of  another  order,  development  of  pos- 
sibilities altogether  unexpected,  progress  which  the 
earlier  generation  had  no  power  to  foresee,  openings 
of  knowledge  beyond  the  attainments  of  the  past,  even 
of  the  recent  past,  make  themselves  manifest;  and  those 
who  grow  up  as  the  years  advance  and  are  moulded 
in  their  thoughts  and  powers  by  all  these  things  which 
the  years  bring  with  them,  are  the  men  prepared,  as 
their  predecessors  could  not  be,  for  the  deciding  of  ques- 
tions or  the  direction  of  life  in  their  own  age.  If  they 
are  selected  with  wisdom  for  the  positions  which  they 

477 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

are  to  occupy,  we  may  look  forward  without  doubts  or 
fears  as  to  the  interests  intrusted  to  their  charge.  We 
may  have  confidence  respecting  the  future,  that  it  is  as 
full  of  promise  as  the  past  has  been  of  realization. 

The  thought  thus  presented  may  naturally  and  fitly 
make  us,  each  and  all,  hesitant  in  attempting  to  deter- 
mine for  our  successors,  what  they  should  do  in  their 
work  for  the  development  of  the  coming  time.  They 
ought  to  be  and,  if  equal  to  the  demands  upon  them, 
will  be  more  capable  than  we  are  of  ordering  their 
course  of  action  in  view  of  the  opportunities  or  emer- 
gencies which  may  arise.  There  are,  however,  as  we  all 
know  and  must  admit,  lessons  of  moment  which  come 
from  the  past,  and  to  which  the  intelligent  man  of  the 
future  may  properly  give  his  attention,  if  he  desires  to 
guide  his  actions  aright.  The  errors  and  successes  of 
the  by-gone  days  have  in  like  measure,  and  often  in 
their  union  with  each  other,  a  teaching  even  for  all 
time,  which  cannot  be  wisely  disregarded.  And  this 
is  as  true  in  the  sphere  of  university  life  as  it  is  else- 
where. To  a  few  suggestions  which  seem  to  me  to  be 
connected  with  such  lessons  from  our  past  history  I 
will  allow  myself  briefly  to  call  the  thought  of  my  read- 
ers who  may  chance  to  be  of  the  Yale  fraternity. 

The  first  of  these  suggestions  has  reference  to  the 
matter  of  undergraduate  college  government.  If  I 
have  any  understanding  of  the  teaching  of  the  century 
behind  us,  there  is  no  sphere  in  which  the  truth  of  the 
proverb,  "An  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of 
cure,"  has  become  more  manifest  than  that  of  the 
administration  of  the  daily  life  of  our  College.  The 
evils  of  the  undergraduate  body  were  largely  misunder- 
stood by  the  fathers  of  the  olden  time,  in  that  they  were 
supposed  to  be,  or  at  least  were  dealt  with  as  if  they 
were,  of  precisely  the  same  order  with  those  of  the 
478 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

community  or  the  State.  The  youthful  age  of  the 
student  company,  its  momentary  thoughtlessness,  its 
love  of  temporary  enjoyment  unaccompanied  by  any 
desire  to  do  serious  harm  or  wrong;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  its  better  aspirations,  its  generous  sentiment,  its 
susceptibility  to  persuasive  influence,  its  openness  to 
friendly  feeling — all  these  things  were,  in  far  too  large 
measure,  lost  sight  of  and  disregarded.  As  a  conse- 
quence, the  authorities  took  the  attitude  of  a  governing 
body  waiting  until  offences  had  been  committed  and  then 
inflicting  penalties,  rather  than  that  of  an  educating 
force  intervening  beforehand  to  check  wrong  desires  or 
lead  by  kindly  influence  away  from  the  evil  act.  It  is 
certainly  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  very  gratifying 
and  very  marked  change  which  has  been  realized,  within 
the  past  thirty  years,  in  the  general  quietness  and  pro- 
priety of  our  college  life  is  in  no  inconsiderable  degree — 
if,  indeed,  it  be  not  mainly — due  to  the  introduction  of 
better  notions  of  administration  or,  in  a  word,  to  the 
following  out  of  the  idea  of  the  proverb.  The  oppor- 
tunity for  prevention  in  a  college  community  is  almost 
unlimited.  Prevention  is  the  one  cause  that  effectually 
puts  an  end  to  the  evil. 

But  if  this  be  true,  it  follows  of  necessity  that  the 
men  in  a  Faculty  who  are  specially  endowed  with  the 
gift  of  prevention — if  I  may  so  describe  it, — that  is  to 
say,  who  have  the  genuine  appreciation  of  the  mind  and 
feeling  of  those  with  whom  they  have  to  deal,  and  the 
peculiar  intelligence  and  sentiment  that  fit  them  for  suc- 
cess in  this  particular  work,  should  be  placed  in  charge 
of  the  matter  of  discipline.  They  should  be  allowed 
to  take  the  initiative;  and  their  judgment  may  properly 
have  the  largest,  if  not  indeed  the  all-controlling  influ- 
ence in  every  case.  The  college  officer  who  does  not 
possess  this  gift,  ought  to  be  assigned  to  other  spheres 
of  duty,  for  which  he  is  fitted — it  may  be,  by  reason  of 

479 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

more  than  ordinary  powers, — even  as  the  classical 
scholar,  whose  studies  and  learning  give  him  eminent 
qualification  for  his  own  department,  should  be  called 
to  teach  the  Classics,  and  not  be  asked  to  offer  instruction 
in  Metaphysics  or  Chemistry  of  which,  perchance,  he 
knows  little  or  nothing.  The  lesson  of  the  past  in  this 
matter  is  surely  one  which  has  a  bearing  upon  all  time. 

Another  suggestion  which  comes  to  us  as  closely  con- 
nected with  the  one  just  mentioned  is,  as  I  think,  this: — 
that  in  the  large  growth  in  the  membership  of  our 
Faculties  which  must  take  place  in  the  future,  even  as 
it  has  begun  already  to  be  realized,  men  of  various 
talents  and  capabilities  should  be  selected  for  official 
appointment.  By  this,  of  course,  I  do  not  mean  men 
devoted  to  different  branches  of  learning.  That  such 
men  should  be  chosen  as  instructors  is  self-evident.  I 
refer  rather  to  differences  as  bearing  upon  the  general 
educational  work  of  the  institution  on  behalf  of  its 
students.  Scholars  given  wholly  to  scholarship  may 
indeed,  in  one  aspect  of  the  matter,  make  in  and  of 
themselves  a  college  or  university.  But  an  institution 
of  this  order  which  undertakes  to  educate  young  men 
for  mature  life  and  its  duties,  and  for  manhood  in  its 
best  and  widest  sense,  needs  something  more.  It  de- 
mands for  the  accomplishment  of  its  purpose  not  only 
men  who  are  simply  and  purely  scholars — there  may 
well  be  such,  and  for  its  highest  well-being  there  should 
be  such,  in  every  university,  and  they  are  worthy  of  all 
honor.  But  it  requires  also  men  who  can  teach,  as  well 
as  learn  or  know;  who  can  teach  forcefully  and  help- 
fully, even  if  their  special  gift  be  attended  by  some 
lessening  of  power  for  greater  acquisitions.  The  teacher 
who  deals  with  pupils,  as  well  as  the  scholar  who  devotes 
himself  wholly  to  books  and  learning,  is  a  necessity  of 
its  very  life  for  a  university  like  ours. 
480 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

No  less  true  is  it,  that  such  an  institution,  if  it  is  to 
fulfill  its  proper  work,  must  have  within  its  official  circle 
men  of  what  I  may  call  effective  character.  All  college 
officers  should  be  persons  of  high  character.  There  is 
a  universal  agreement  on  this  point.  One  who  has  not 
this  possession  for  himself  has  no  proper  place  in  such 
a  sphere.  He  is  an  alien  from  the  commonwealth  of 
university  teachers.  But  there  is  a  marked  distinction 
between  character  and  what  I  here  refer  to  by  the 
words  effective  character.  I  have  in  mind  character 
which  has  not  only  a  silent  force  by  reason  of  its  very 
existence  in  the  man,  but  also  an  outgoing  energy  per- 
taining  to  his  nature  and  manhood.  The  influence  of 
such  a  man  is  of  inestimable  value  for  the  entire  student 
community.  Who  can  measure  the  results  for  the 
highest  education — for  the  development  of  mental  and 
spiritual  life — which  have  been  realized  by  the  Yale 
graduates  of  the  years  from  1846  to  1886  because  of 
the  presence  with  them  and  among  them  of  Professor 
Thomas  A.  Thacher?  What  would  have  been  the  loss 
to  the  institution,  if  he  had  not  been  called  into  its 
service  ?  Such  men  are  needed  in  every  generation. 

How  evidently  also  the  past  has  made  manifest  the 
demand  for  men  having  the  gift  of  administration  in 
the  larger  and  wider  sense.  I  refer  to  such  as  have  open 
minds  to  perceive  the  needs  of  the  present  and  the 
future,  the  wide  outlook  which  reaches  to  all  interests 
alike  and  brings  with  it  the  appreciation  of  every  part 
of  the  common  life,  and  the  ability  and  energy  which 
are  essential  to  the  realization  of  the  desired  ends.  Yale 
University  could  never  have  been  made  what  it  is  to-day 
had  it  not  been  for  such  men  in  its  board  of  instruction, 
as  well  as  that  of  government.  The  future,  in  this 
regard  also,  will  answer  to  the  past.  If  what  we  hope 
for  is  to  be  made  the  possession  of  those  who  follow  us, 
there  must  be  able  teachers,  as  well  as  eminent  scholars, 
481  • 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  the  official  body.  There  must  be  men  gifted  in 
guiding  and  elevating  and  bringing  to  still  better  ideals 
the  student  life  in  the  institution.  There  must  be  also 
men  not  only  of  genuine  and  noble  character  in  them- 
selves, but  of  forceful  personality  moving  others  to  at- 
tain the  same.  Yet,  in  addition  to  all  these,  men  will 
be  imperatively  needed  who  can  appreciate  the  demands 
of  the  coming  era  and  foresee,  with  some  measure  of 
prophetic  vision,  its  possibilities,  while  at  the  same  time 
they  have  the  power  to  lay  hold  upon  what  these  involve. 
Such  men  are  the  creators  of  the  new  and  greater  things. 

The  experience  of  the  past,  whether  in  the  way  of 
failures  or  successes,  seems  to  me  also  to  impress  upon 
the  mind  the  thought  that,  in  the  coming  time,  every 
instructor  in  the  University  should  endeavor,  by  all  the 
means  at  his  command,  to  awaken  and  keep  alive  in  his 
pupils  enthusiasm  for  the  study  which  they  pursue  under 
his  guidance.  To  this  end,  it  will  be  essential  for  him 
to  preserve  in  its  freshness  his  own  enthusiasm  as  he 
moves  along  the  pathway  of  his  personal  learning.  The 
way  to  stir  intellectual  life  in  others  is,  first  of  all,  to 
have  such  life  in  oneself.  This,  however,  will  not  be 
enough — he  will  need  also  to  throw  into  his  teaching 
all  the  energy  of  his  own  awakened  and  inspired  in- 
dividuality. The  man  within  him  must  be  moved  by 
an  all-controlling  impulse  to  give  forth  its  vital  and 
vitalizing  force,  so  that  his  instruction  will  carry  in 
itself  for  those  who  receive  it  intellectual  stimulus,  as 
well  as  an  increase  of  knowledge.  His  lecture-room 
must  become  a  place  of  life-imparting  power,  and  not 
only  a  place  for  teaching,  or  for  testing  the  student's 
acquisitions. 

But  apart  from  his  public  meetings  with  his  pupils, 
and  his  more  formal  work  of  instruction,  there  are 
possibilities  open  to  him  for  accomplishing  results  in 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

the  matter  to  which  I  now  have  reference  which  should 
by  no  means  be  lost  sight  of  by  the  college  teacher,  or 
disregarded.  As  the  field  of  knowledge  in  every  depart- 
ment widens  and  the  numbers  of  those  who  present 
themselves  for  instruction  become  greater,  the  professor 
or  teacher  is  often  led  to  limit  himself  to  what  he  con- 
siders his  appointed  duties — the  duties  assigned  him 
in  the  regular  order  of  daily  or  weekly  exercises — and 
to  feel  satisfied  when  these  have  been  discharged.  The 
hours  remaining  to  him  are  too  few  to  suffer  any  of 
them  to  be  taken  from  his  private  studies.  The  pupils 
are  too  numerous  to  give  them  more  individual  and 
personal  attention.  Is  it  not  fitting — or  even  an  obliga- 
tion laid  upon  him  by  his  science — to  leave  his  students 
to  themselves  at  the  close  of  the  stated  hours,  as  truly 
as  it  is  to  meet  them  when  the  hours  begin?  So  he  is 
prone  to  question  with  himself;  and  the  answer  which 
he  gives  leads  him  homeward  to  his  own  employments 
and  investigations.  The  tendency  of  the  recent  years, 
I  think,  has  been  somewhat  in  this  direction.  But  the 
lesson  of  the  past  century  as  a  whole,  as  it  seems  to 
me — and  here  again  I  would  say,  the  lesson  of  its  suc- 
cess and  failures  alike — has  in  it  a  different  teaching. 
It  tells  of  the  almost  inestimable  value  of  the  personal 
relation  of  the  instructor  to  his  pupil  in  the  sphere  of 
enthusiasm.  In  such  a  relation  it  is — more  truly,  we 
may  almost  say,  than  anywhere  else — that  the  fire  of  the 
mind  and  soul  of  the  former  can  be  enkindled  in  the 
latter.  The  teacher  who  cares  nothing  for  it  loses  one 
of  the  greatest  powers  for  good,  both  for  himself  and 
for  the  institution  which  has  called  him  to  its  service. 
He  may  have  larger  learning  at  the  end  of  his  career, 
but  he  will  not  have  done  so  large  a  work  for  the 
inmost  lives  of  those  who  have  come  to  him  for  help. 

The  call  of  duty,  thus,   for  the  coming  years,  as  I 
think  we  must  admit,  is  that  every  college  officer,  who 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

is  an  instructor  coming  in  contact  with  students,  should 
give  a  portion  of  his  time  to  personal  conferences  with 
those  who  are  in  his  classes,  and  should  consecrate  such 
time  to.  awakening  in  them  enthusiastic  devotion  to 
study  and  thus  making  them,  in  the  intellectual  sphere, 
joyfully  self-propelling  men. 

It  is,  in  part,  because  we  find  herein  a  means  to  this 
end,  that  every  teacher  should  unite  with  his  own  per- 
sonal and  public  instruction  what  I  have  incidentally 
alluded  to  on  an  earlier  page — namely,  the  call  for 
private  work  and  investigation,  under  his  own  guidance 
and  with  responsibility  to  himself,  on  the  part  of  each 
and  all  of  his  pupils.  There  are  few  better  ways,  if 
indeed  any,  of  stirring  or  keeping  alive  enthusiasm 
than  this,  which  gives  opportunity  both  for  the  student 
himself  and  his  instructor  in  their  union  with  each  other. 
The  learner  becomes,  by  this  means,  both  receptive  and 
active,  and  he  makes  what  he  gains  in  the  most  complete 
sense  his  own,  while  he  is  moved  by  a  continual  impulse 
to  acquire  yet  more. 

All  this  which  has  been  said  respecting  enthusiasm 
has  its  application  to  graduate  students,  as  well  as 
undergraduates.  In  the  departments  of  the  University 
whose  membership  is  composed  of  young  men  who  have 
finished  their  college  course,  and  are  preparing  them- 
selves for  their  life-work  as  professional  and  educated 
men,  the  teacher  may,  however,  presume  upon  more 
self-consecration  and  earnestness  on  the  part  of  his 
pupils.  In  the  younger  years,  it  is  natural  that  many 
should  fail  to  see  the  value  or  the  beauty  of  what  they 
are  learning,  and  thus  should  think  of  study  only  as 
a  task.  But  if  the  man  is  ever  to  have  the  true  inspira- 
tion of  manhood,  he  may  be  expected  to  exhibit  it  as 
he  moves  forward  in  the  work  which  opens  into  his 
entire  future  career.  The  task  must  now  have  an  ele- 
ment of  pleasure  and  delight  in  it,  it  would  seem,  or  the 

484 


PHELPS    HALL 
Erected  1896 


MEMORIES     OF      YALE      LIFE      AND     MEN 

dulness  of  the  soul  and  mind  is  beyond  hope.  Yet  even 
in  these  higher  schools,  the  professor  cannot  fulfill  his 
duty  as  he  ought,  unless  he  adds  by  his  own  force  to 
the  enthusiasm  already  aroused  in  the  student's  mind, 
and  thus  proves  to  him,  as  it  were  through  a  personal 
experience  revealing  itself  before  his  eyes,  that  knowl- 
edge is  infinitely  precious  and  is  ever  giving  to  its 
possessor  its  own  reward. 

In  connection  with  the  subject  of  enthusiasm  in  study, 
I  may  properly  allude  to  another  matter  which  has 
sometimes  a  direct,  and  always  a  more  or  less  indirect 
bearing  upon  it.  I  refer  to  the  honor, — or,  as  the  word 
is  more  frequently  used,  the  honors, — given  by  the 
University  in  the  sphere  of  scholarship.  That  a  young 
man  may  work  and  strive  for  such  honors  without  any 
scholarly  inspiration — with  earnestness  indeed,  but  with 
no  real  stirring  of  the  inner  life-powers — cannot  be 
denied.  But  their  natural  influence  is  seen  in  the  appeal 
which  they  make  to  the  higher  element  in  the  manhood ; 
and  so,  when  they  move,  in  the  forces  which  they  exert, 
along  the  true  lines,  they  tend  towards  the  development 
of  a  genuinely  enthusiastic  mental  life.  It  would  be 
unfortunate  in  this  view  of  them,  as  well  as  in  others, 
to  separate  them  altogether  from  our  university  sys- 
tem. If  they  are  to  be  retained  as  a  useful  and  helpful 
part  of  it,  however,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  it  would 
seem,  that  their  true  power  for  the  student  community 
should  be  given  them  at  all  times.  The  question  may 
fairly  be  raised,  I  think,  whether  they  have  not  recently, 
in  connection  with  some  of  the  desirable  changes  of  the 
time,  been  suffered  to  lose  something  of  their  just  promi- 
nence in  the  thought  of  the  academic  company.  If  this 
be  so  in  fact,  we  may  also  ask  whether  the  loss  is  not 
of  greater  significance  because  it  has  been  contempo- 
raneous with  the  rising  in  the  student  mind  of  the  value 
485 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  honors  in  other  spheres  of  effort.  I  do  not  refer  to 
the  matter  here  as  bearing  upon  the  possibilities  of  col- 
lege education.  These  are  greater  now  than  they  ever 
have  been  in  the  past.  But  in  the  relation  of  these 
honors  to  the  awakening  and  growth  of  enthusiasm,  and 
thus  to  the  elevation  of  the  scholarly  life  of  the  institu- 
tion, I  think  they  should  be  regarded  as  worthy  of  most 
attentive  consideration  by  those  who  shall  in  the  future 
have  the  academic  interests  in  charge. 

As  I  offer  this  suggestion,  I  would  also  express  a 
thought  and  feeling  which  I  have  with  reference  to  our 
Graduate  School.  That  this  school  has  accomplished 
an  admirable  work  already,  and  has  added  greatly  to 
the  university  life,  is  universally  acknowledged.  Its 
growth  and  prosperity  awaken  a  sentiment  of  satisfac- 
tion and  gratitude.  But  I  think  that  in  the  future  its 
influence  will  become  more  widely  extended,  and  may 
be  made  much  more  helpful  to  the  best  culture,  if  its 
students  are  not  limited  hereafter,  in  the  degree  which 
is  now  manifest,  to  such  as  are  desirous  of  preparing 
themselves  to  be  teachers  in  schools  or  colleges.  One 
of  the  great  advantages  and  blessings  of  such  a  school, 
whether  to  the  university  or  to  the  cause  of  education, 
will  be  realized,  as  it  seems  to  me,  if  many  of  the  best 
and  most  enthusiastic  students  in  our  college  classes, 
who  have  no  desire  to  enter  the  teacher's  profession,  can 
be  led  to  pursue  their  studies  for  one  or  two  years  after 
graduation  with  the  purpose  of  securing  for  themselves 
a  yet  wider  and  more  liberal  culture.  These  young  men 
would  have  an  honorable  place  in  the  community  of 
scholars.  If  graduate  fellowships — with  or  without  in- 
come, as  might  be  determined  by  the  needs  of  each  par- 
ticular case — could  be  offered  to  students  of  the  best 
and  highest  order  as  they  finished  the  undergraduate 
course,  this  reward  would  surely  be  an  inspiration  in  the 
university  life.  The  future  of  our  country,  as  we  may 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

hope — may  we  not  say,  as  we  cannot  doubt — will  de- 
mand with  increasing  earnestness  and  emphasis  men  of 
a  culture  wider  than  that  of  their  individual  profession 
or  calling.  Our  Graduate  School  in  the  University 
should  educate  such  men. 

Graduate  fellowships  of  this  character  might  also  be 
fitly  given  to  the  leading  scholars  in  the  classes,  on  re- 
ceiving their  Bachelor's  degrees,  in  cases  where  the  call 
of  life  should  seem  to  come  for  a  more  immediate  en- 
trance upon  a  course  of  professional  study.  Their 
stimulating  influence,  if  thus  offered,  would  be  equally 
great,  as  bearing  upon  those  in  the  undergraduate  period 
to  whom  they  would  make  their  appeal,  and  they  would 
thus  be  an  inspiration  for  scholarship  which  would  have 
in  itself  a  life-giving  force.  The  founding  of  such 
fellowships  is  worthy  of  the  serious  and  generous 
thought  of  the  authorities  and  friends  of  the  Univer- 
sity. 

In  most  of  our  collegiate  institutions  in  New  England, 
the  selection  of  persons  who  shall  fill  professorships  and 
instructorships  is  one  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  Presi- 
dent. He  determines  whom  he  will  nominate  to  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  whenever  an  appointment  is  to  be 
made,  and  the  candidate  presented  by  him  is,  almost  as 
a  matter  of  course,  placed  in  the  designated  position. 
The  same  order  of  things  pertains,  as  I  think,  to  the 
institutions  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  most  of  which 
have  been,  in  greater  or  less  degree,  modeled  after  those 
of  our  own  section.  Public  sentiment  seems  to  accept 
this  provision  as  a  part  of  the  legitimate  system  of 
college  government.  I  remember  hearing  one  of  the 
most  prominent  among  the  presiding  officers  of  our 
universities  say,  a  few  years  ago,  that  he  regarded  any 
other  arrangement  with  reference  to  the  matter  as  un- 
wise and  unfortunate.  A  recent  writer,  who  states  that 

487 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

he  has  held  a  similar  office,  carries  his  views  on  the 
subject  still  farther,  and  claims  that  the  chief  executive 
official  in  such  an  institution  should  have  powers  kindred 
to  those  of  the  head  of  a  great  commercial  establishment 
or  railway  enterprise — that  he  should  have  authority  not 
only  to  appoint  his  associates  in  instruction  to  their  sev- 
eral chairs,  but  also  to  remove  them  from  their  positions 
according  as  it  should  seem  best  to  him  to  do  so.  All 
instructors  of  whatever  name  or  rank  would,  under  such 
circumstances,  be  in  the  strictest  sense  subordinate  to  the 
President,  and  would  be  dependent  on  his  will  and 
pleasure. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  century  which  has  just  closed, 
a  different  system  of  appointments  was  introduced  and 
established  at  Yale.  The  decision  in  respect  to  the 
candidate  who  should  be  presented  to  the  Corporation 
for  their  action  was  intrusted,  not  to  the  President  alone, 
but  to  the  professors  in  connection  with  him.  This  was 
ordained  as  the  rule  of  the  institution  in  this  regard, 
or,  what  was  perhaps  better,  it  passed  by  universal  con- 
sent into  an  unwritten  law  of  the  University  life.  In 
accordance  with  it,  as  the  institution  extended  itself  and 
added  to  the  original  College  new  Departments,  the 
Faculties  of  each  section  became  independent — the  per- 
manent officers  in  each  uniting  with  the  President  in 
the  selection  of  those  who  should  be  associated  with 
them.  The  President,  by  reason  of  his  office,  held  the 
prominent  place;  but  he  was  the  first  among  equals, 
rather  than  the  sole  judge  and  authority.  The  newly- 
elected  professor  or  instructor  was  thus  assured  of  a 
kindly  welcome  as  he  accepted  his  appointment,  and 
the  Corporation,  in  electing  him,  had  the  best  of  evi- 
dence that  he  was  the  choice  not  of  one,  but  of  all. 

Notwithstanding  the  opinion  of  eminent  authorities 
and  the  prevailing  order  of  life  in  other  institutions,  my 
own  judgment,  confirmed  by  all  my  observation  and 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

experience,  is  that  the  Yale  plan  is,  in  every  way, 
preferable,  and  is  the  one,  in  all  essential  points,  adapted 
to  the  modern  age.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  Yale 
professor,  or  any  president,  who  has  held  office  since 
the  system  was  first  introduced  has  ever,  for  a  moment, 
desired  to  change  it  for  that  which  is  known  elsewhere. 
As  for  myself,  I  am  sure  that  its  establishment  here 
has  secured  for  our  University  no  inconsiderable  meas- 
ure of  its  prosperity,  as  well  as  of  the  happiness  of  its 
membership. 

It  is  undesirable,  as  I  think,  that  the  President  of  a 
college  should  have  in  his  hands  too  much  power.  It 
is  better,  even  as  it  is  in  the  case  of  the  Chief  Executive 
of  the  country,  that  limitations  should  be  set  upon  his 
authority,  and  that  he  should  be  in  a  degree  dependent 
on  his  more  permanent  associates,  while  he  is  indeed 
their  leader.  The  prerogative  of  selecting  the  new 
members  of  a  Faculty  is  one  that  may  be  attended  by 
grave  dangers,  especially  if  the  power  of  removal,  such 
as  has  been  suggested,  is  added  to  it.  We  may  have  con- 
fidence in  the  present  President  whom  we  know,  because 
of  the  qualities  of  manhood  that  are  in  him,  but  the 
system  is  continuous,  and  includes  in  its  provisions  his 
unknown  successors,  as  well  as  himself. 

There  is,  however,  one  new  element  in  the  question 
relating  to  this  matter  in  our  own  University  which,  as 
I  think,  may  justly  demand  consideration.  In  the 
growth  and  changes  of  the  recent  years,  the  larger 
Faculties,  especially,  have  divided  themselves,  not  indeed 
in  sympathies,  but  in  studies  and  personal  interests,  into 
subordinate  sections,  to  a  degree  far  beyond  what  was 
known  or  was  possible  at  an  earlier  period.  These 
sections  have,  each  one  of  them,  a  certain  separate  unity 
and  a  kind  of  organization,  so  that  each  has  its  head 
professor  to  whom  the  other  instructors  are  in  a  measure 
responsible  and  with  whom  they  are  closely  allied.  As 

489 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE    -AND     MEN 

a  result  of  this  new  condition  of  things,  and  of  the 
concentration  of  thought  in  the  case  of  the  smaller  bodies 
of  men  on  the  matters  pertaining  to  themselves  as  in- 
vestigators and  scholars,  there  is  already  beginning  to 
appear  a  tendency  to  leave  the  suggestion  of  new  ap- 
pointments to  the  men  of  the  particular  section  or  de- 
partment in  which  they  are  called  for.  In  many  such 
cases,  if  not  in  all,  the  influence  of  the  leading  professor 
is  likely  to  become  unduly  powerful,  and  the  result  may 
be  that  he,  in  effect,  nominates,  or  indeed  makes  choice 
of  his  associate  or  possibly  his  successor.  That  there 
are  evils  or  dangers  connected  with  such  powers  of 
nomination,  can  hardly  be  doubted,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
by  any  one  who  carefully  reflects  upon  the  subject. 
There  are  certainly  many  scholarly  men  who  are  not 
fully  qualified  to  name  their  successors;  and  I  believe  it 
is  not  altogether  wise  or  safe  to  entrust  to  a  small  section 
of  such  a  company  as  a  college  faculty  the  decision  as  to 
persons  who  shall  be  admitted  to  its  membership. 

As  our  Faculties  grow  larger  in  numbers,  accordingly, 
there  will  be  an  emphatic  call  upon  each  professor  to 
acquaint  himself  as  far  as  possible  with  the  gifts  and 
qualifications  of  every  new  candidate,  whatever  may 
be  his  department  of  study  and  teaching,  and  especially 
upon  the  President  to  have  a  very  wide  and  intelligent 
outlook,  a  generous  sympathy  for  scholars  in  all  lines, 
and  a  never-failing  watchfulness  for  the  highest  interest 
and  welfare  of  the  University. 

In  what  has  been  said  I  have  referred  to  the  matter 
of  nominations  for  membership  in  the  Faculties.  The 
appointments  or  elections  to  all  offices  of  instruction,  as 
well  as  to  other  positions,  belong  appropriately  to  the 
Corporation  or  Board  of  Trustees,  in  which  body  the 
President  should,  of  course,  have  a  prominent  place. 
The  Corporation,  however,  will  in  all  cases,  if  their 
course  of  action  is  guided  by  wisdom,  give  the  views 

4QO 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  the  nominating  Faculty  their  most  respectful  con- 
sideration, and  will  not  fail,  unless  for  reasons  of  the 
weightiest  character,  to  confirm  the  nominations  that 
are  presented  to  them.  In  this  matter,  as  in  the  sphere 
of  studies,  the  opinions  and  judgment  of  the  permanent 
teachers  of  the  institution  must,  of  necessity,  be  of  much 
more  value  than  those  of  the  trustees  can  be,  for  they 
know  the  needs  and  the  men  who  are  fitted  adequately 
to  meet  them. 

The  relations  of  the  Yale  Corporation  and  the  Yale 
Faculties  to  each  other  have  been  almost  of  an  ideal 
character  during  the  entire  period  of  which  I  am  writ- 
ing. The  two  boards  of  instruction  and  administration 
have  been  harmonious  in  sentiment  and  action,  each 
generously  contributing  in  its  line  of  special. service  to 
the  common  life.  No  jealousies  or  conflicts  have 
hindered  the  progress  or  disturbed  the  peacefulness  of 
the  institution.  That  the  inheritance  which  has  come  to 
us  with  so  much  of  blessing  may  abide  in  its  influence 
and  its  gifts  with  the  University  that  we  love,  may  well 
be  our  earnest  desire  and  our  confident  hope. 

Within  the  most  recent  years,  our  undergraduate 
colleges  are  beginning  to  find  themselves  subjected  to  a 
pressure  alike  from  above  and  from  below — from  the 
professional  institutions  on  the  one  side,  and  the  second- 
ary schools  on  the  other — which  may  well  awaken,  as 
I  think,  the  most  serious  and  deliberate  consideration 
on  the  part  of  university  leaders.  For  some  time  past, 
as  we  all  know,  the  schools  of  medicine  and  law  have 
pressed  with  urgency  the  demand  that  the  course  of 
study  distinctly  preparatory  to  those  professions  should 
be  lengthened.  In  view  of  this  need  which  is  affirmed 
to  be  imperative,  prominent  schools  in  both  of  these 
spheres  of  learning — our  own  among  them — have  al- 
ready added  a  year  or  two  to  the  curriculum  required 
491 


MEMORIES    OF   YALE    LIFE    AND    MEN 

for  the  attainment  of  a  degree.  As  such  an  addition 
delays  the  entrance  upon  professional  duties  for  the 
young  men  who  are  preparing  for  their  life-work  in 
those  lines,  a  remedy  for  the  evil  is  called  for,  and  the 
claim  is  made  that  it  can  be  found  only  in  a  shortening 
of  the  undergraduate  college  period. 

It  is  manifest,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  governors 
of  the  secondary  schools  have  of  late  years  been  or- 
ganizing their  institutional  life,  and  arranging  their 
plans  of  work,  in  such  a  way  as  to  render  it  more  and 
more  difficult  for  the  youth  who  is  in  their  school  mem- 
bership to  finish  his  studies  preparatory  for  the  college 
course  within  a  more  limited  time  than  that  which  is 
scheduled  for  their  curriculum.  If  there  is  to  be  any 
change,  it  is  maintained  on  their  part  that  it  should  be 
through  adding  to  the  school  years,  rather  than  dimin- 
ishing their  number. 

The  guardians  of  the  colleges  are  expected  by  both 
parties  to  yield  readily  and  gracefully  to  the  pressure 
which  is  thus  brought  upon  them,  as  if  the  question  of 
duty  and  propriety  in  the  matter  were  already  passing 
beyond  the  sphere  of  dispute.  At  the  same  time,  the 
opinion  is  asserting  itself  among  educational  leaders, 
that  the  attainment  of  a  bachelor's  degree  in  the  under- 
graduate college  course  should  be  required  as  a  condition 
of  entrance  into  our  university  professional  schools. 
The  learned  professions  must  be  filled,  it  is  said,  with 
truly  and  genuinely  educated  men.  The  old-established 
college  curriculum,  however,  demands  so  long  a  time 
that  very  considerable  numbers  of  young  men  who  might 
otherwise  take  the  studies  pertaining  to  it  and  receive 
the  accompanying  degree  are  now  altogether  excluded 
from  it.  They  turn  away  at  the  beginning,  because 
they  cannot  devote  the  years  which  are  needed  to  secure 
what  comes  only  at  the  end.  In  justice  to  these  men, 
as  well  as  to  the  demands  for  the  highest  education  of 
492 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

those  who  enter  the  learned  professions,  the  colleges 
must,  in  some  way,  yield  a  portion  of  the  period  which 
has  been  at  their  command. 

At  the  present  moment,  the  authorities  of  some  of  our 
colleges  seem  disposed  to  accept  the  situation  at  once, 
and  to  make  provision  for  a  more  limited  course.  In 
one  or  two,  the  suggestion  has  been  made  that  the  degree 
of  bachelor  of  arts  may  be  conferred  at  the  close  of  the 
second  year.  In  connection  with  such  a  suggestion  as 
this,  it  would  seem  that  the  question  might  naturally 
arise,  whether  it  is  not  as  well  for  the  culture  of  our 
lawyers  or  physicians  to  admit  them  to  the  professional 
schools  at  the  end  of  the  Sophomore  year  without  a 
degree,  as  to  confer  one  which  must  have  such  minor 
significance.  A  degree  without  meaning  in  it  is,  cer- 
tainly, of  no  very  great  value,  either  to  the  true  life  of 
the  individual  who  receives  it  or  to  the  cause  of  the 
higher  education. 

I  would  not  attempt  here  to  forecast  the  future,  or 
to  anticipate  the  final  decision  which  may  be  reached 
hereafter.  But  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  inquire 
briefly  as  to  the  alleged  evil  on  which  the  whole  dis- 
cussion is  based,  and,  in  case  its  existence  is  acknowl- 
edged, as  to  the  necessity  of  the  remedy  that  is  pro- 
posed. 

The  evil  which  is  claimed  to  exist  is  this — that  the 
present  educational  system  does  not  allow  those  who  are 
under  its  control  to  enter  upon  the  work  of  their  mature 
career  at  a  sufficiently  early  age.  Is  this  claim  well 
founded?  It  seems  to  me  very  doubtful  whether  this 
can  be  affirmed.  The  average  age  of  our  Yale  stu- 
dents, in  the  present  era,  is,  at  the  most,  from  three  to 
six  months  higher  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  It  is 
between  twenty-two  years  and  six  months,  and  twenty- 
two  and  nine  months.  The  young  man  who  graduates 
at  this  age  can  take  his  law  course  and  be  ready  for  his 

493 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

entrance  upon  his  profession  when  he  is  twenty-six,  or 
he  can  complete  his  medical  course  just  before  he  is 
twenty-seven.  In  case  he  begins  his  undergraduate  life 
at  eighteen,  he  may  save  nearly  a  year,  and  if  at  seven- 
teen, nearly  two  years,  for  his  future  work.  I  cannot 
think  that,  under  these  circumstances,  he  is  to  be  re- 
garded  as  being  at  an  unfortunately  late  period  of  life 
when  he  begins  the  business  of  his  manhood.  The 
college,  as  it  seems  to  me,  can  scarcely  be  held  responsi- 
ble for  an  unnecessary  demand  upon  his  time,  or  for  a 
sad  loss,  which  he  is  made  to  suffer,  of  a  portion  of  his 
working  career. 

That  there  are  some  young  men,  or  even  a  very  con- 
siderable number,  who  are  unable  to  enter  college  at 
nineteen  or  earlier,  is  of  course  the  fact.  But  the  col- 
legiate and  educational  system  is  and,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
must  be  founded  upon  the  idea  of  the  earlier  entrance, 
and  all  these  cases  are  to  be  considered  exceptional. 
If  provision  is  to  be  made  for  such  persons  because  of 
the  lack  of  time  at  their  command,  it  may  fitly  be  of  a 
special  character,  and  need  not  involve  an  entire  change 
of  the  system.  There  are  men  in  almost  every  college 
class,  the  condition  of  whose  life  renders  it  impossible 
for  them  to  be  prepared  for  a  professional  career  before 
they  are  thirty-one  or  two  years  old.  They  are  un- 
fortunate, because  of  their  limitations.  We  may  be 
called  upon  to  treat  them  as  generously  as  we  can,  but 
surely  we  are  not  called  to  limit  the  general  life  for 
their  sake,  or  to  send  them  forth  at  the  end  of  their 
second  year  with  a  bachelor's  degree.  With  reference 
even  to  these  men,  my  observation  of  my  own  class- 
mates, and  of  many  classes  since  my  college  era,  leads 
me  to  believe  that  the  longer  period  of  the  undergrad- 
uate course  is,  in  general,  highly  advantageous,  rather 
than  otherwise.  The  educated  man  will  realize  more 
for  himself,  and  be  more  effective  for  others — there  can 
494 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

be  no  question  as  to  the  truth  of  this — in  proportion  as 
he  knows  more  and  has  larger  and  more  wide-extended 
learning.  It  is  better  to  begin  the  manly  career  a  little 
later  with  more  knowledge,  than  a  little  earlier  with  less. 

In  the  case  of  those  who  have  early  advantages,  and 
are  free  from  the  limitations  alluded  to,  the  saving  of 
time  which  is  called  for  should  be  secured  at  the  begin- 
ning. There  is,  as  I  believe,  no  just  ground  for  the 
delays  which  are  so  general  in  the  earlier  period.  The 
boy  can  commence  his  studies  which  tend  in  some  meas- 
ure toward  the  college  work  when  he  is  ten  years  old, 
instead  of  waiting  until  he  is  twelve  or  thirteen;  and  if 
he  has  ordinary  quickness  of  mind  and  good  instruction, 
he  can  be  prepared  for  college  at  seventeen,  or  even 
sixteen,  as  well  as  at  nineteen.  The  wasted  years,  in 
this  regard,  are  found  in  the  early  time.  The  mistake 
in  our  educational  arrangements  goes  back,  not  only  of 
the  college,  but  also  of  the  secondary  schools.  The 
opportunities  and  possibilities  which  should  be  opened 
to  the  youngest  boys,  in  the  study  of  languages  as  well 
as  in  other  lines,  are  neglected  through  an  erroneous 
view  on  the  part  of  parents  or  teachers  as  to  what  they 
are  capable  of  doing;  and  the  time  is  thus  left  unfruitful, 
to  the  injury  of  the  later  youthful  development. 

The  idea,  however,  that  the  curriculum  of  the 
secondary  schools  cannot  be  shortened  in  the  period 
devoted  to  it,  while  that  of  the  colleges  should  be,  we 
may  properly  regard,  I  think,  as  mistaken  and  without 
foundation.  The  bright  and  intelligent  youth,  and  even 
the  one  of  moderate  gifts,  can  prepare  himself  for  col- 
lege work  in  a  briefer  time  than  the  schools  require, 
and  in  many  cases  at  least,  he  should,  as  I  am  per- 
suaded, do  this  for  his  best  and  highest  interests.  The 
spending  of  five  or  six  years  in  secondary  school  work, 
to  the  end  of  putting  oneself  in  readiness  for  the  college 
studies,  and  only  three  in  doing  all  that  these  studies 

495 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE     LIFE     AND     MEN 

call  for  as  disciplining  and  strengthening  the  man  for 
his  manly  career,  must  be  considered,  I  think,  an  ar- 
rangement of  youthful  life  which  is  out  of  proportion  to 
the  demands  of  the  case  and  to  the  claims  of  the  higher 
education  at  its  different  stages. 

In  the  consideration  of  this  whole  question,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  we  should  also  bear  in  mind  the  educating 
forces  which  pertain  to  the  college  community  in  the 
sphere  of  its  own  peculiar  life,  apart  from  the  studies 
and  instruction.  Mind  and  character  are  developed 
largely,  as  all  agree,  by  the  associations  and  friendships 
of  the  undergraduate  period.  The  power  of  these 
friendly  associations  is,  however,  especially  manifest  in 
the  latest  part  of  the  course;  and  naturally  so,  because 
of  the  passage  of  time  and  of  the  growths  connected 
with  it.  The  man  who  terminates  his  college  life  at  the 
end  of  his  Junior  year,  though  he  may  by  extraordinary 
efforts  have,  perchance,  accomplished  what  he  would 
otherwise  have  done  by  the  use  of  an  additional  twelve 
months'  time,  cannot  know  the  fullness  of  the  gift 
which  comes  from  the  personal  influence  of  his  fellow- 
students.  He  will  lose  even  somewhat  of  the  best  part 
of  it,  and  thus  somewhat  of  the  rich  blessing  which  the 
university  bestows.  The  remembrance  which  we  all 
have  of  the  college  years,  and  of  the  later  portion  of 
those  years,  may  most  fitly  make  us  serious  in  our 
thought  of  the  changes  suggested.  Such  remembrance 
may  also,  not  inappropriately,  have  its  own  power  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  order  and  administer  the  uni- 
versity life  in  the  coming  time. 

Questions  respecting  the  fundamental  idea  of  the 
university  seem  to  be  already,  as  the  new  century  opens 
upon  us,  beginning  to  rise  in  many  minds; — questions 
as  to  what  the  university  should  be  in  its  relation  to  the 
undergraduate  college;  or  how  far  its  various  courses 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

of  study  may  properly  be  intermingled  in  their  oppor- 
tunities as  offered  to  the  entire  community  of  its  students ; 
or  in  what  measure  the  development  of  the  several  sec- 
tions existing  at  present  is  to  be  modified;  or  whether 
its  Faculties  should,  in  any  way,  be  brought  into  a  more 
organic  unity.  It  is  my  personal  conviction  that  changes 
in  the  directions  suggested  by  these  questionings  should 
be  made,  if  at  all,  only  after  the  most  careful  considera- 
tion of  the  whole  matter  in  all  its  bearings.  The  past 
in  its  ordering  has  reason  in  itself.  I  find  myself  unable 
to  believe  that  the  system  which,  in  this  regard,  it  has 
handed  down  to  us  should  be  set  aside  and  abandoned. 
The  elective  possibilities  may  certainly  be  extended  too 
far,  and  the  later  studies  may  be  begun  before  the 
•education  of  the  youth  in  the  earlier  ones  has  been 
properly  gained.  It  seems  to  me  also  to  be  evident  from 
observation  and  experience  that  men  pursue  the  higher 
studies  more  appreciatively  and  successfully,  when  they 
are  wholly  given  to  them  and  are  in  closest  union  with 
others  who  are  altogether  within  the  same  sphere.  The 
professional  school  has  its  own  place  and  may  not  fitly, 
as  I  think,  attempt  to  usurp  that  of  the  college,  or  to 
press  its  way  into  it  too  forcibly  and  too  fast. 

But — apart  from  the  decision  of*  these  questions — 
there  is  a  suggestive  thought  for  our  own  University 
which  comes  from  its  history.  Its  past  growth  and 
development  and  the  plan  according  to  which  it  has 
come  to  its  present  life  have  been  in  the  line  of  distinct 
and  separate  departments,  having  as  their  design  and 
purpose  the  preparation  of  their  students  for  different 
educational  ends.  It  would  seem  to  be  beyond  question 
that,  in  some  sense  and  measure  at  least,  this  life- 
principle  of  the  institution  must  continue  as  its  animat- 
ing and  directing  force  in  the  coming  period.  There 
must  needs  be  special  courses  of  study  for  particular 
professions  or  spheres  of  work,  to  which  those  who  are 
497 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

in  preparation  are  required  to  give  themselves;  and  such 
students  and  their  professors  or  instructors  must,  for 
the  best  results,  be  in  no  inconsiderable  degree  set  apart 
by  themselves.  In  some  sense  of  completeness,  it  would 
seem,  they  must  form  a  school  of  their  own.  The 
effectiveness  of  the  entire  institution,  and  its  power  for 
good  as  bearing  upon  the  public  life,  will  thus  be  greater 
than  would  otherwise  be  possible. 

Whatever  changes  or  modifications  may  take  place, 
we  are  at  least  safe  in  affirming  that  there  will,  of  neces- 
sity, be  separations  of  studies  and  a  call  for  professor- 
ships, as  well  as  for  other  provisions  with  reference  to 
learning  or  instruction,  in  the  case  of  each  and  all.  The 
demand  of  the  past  century  therefore — enforced  by  its 
entire  history  whether  of  unhappy  neglect  or  of  happy 
and  successful  effort — will  come,  with  an  even  greater 
emphasis,  to  the  central  authorities  in  the  century  now 
beginning,  to  keep  in  mind  all  the  varied  university 
interests;  to  have  the  widest  and  most  generous  outlook; 
and  to  esteem  every  school  or  section  of  the  institution 
as  having  a  like,  as  well  as  constant,  claim  upon  their 
thoughts  and  their  energies.  It  would  be  doubly  un- 
fortunate— a  mistake  and  failure  ever  afterwards  to  be 
regretted,  and  protfably  never  to  be  overcome  in  the  evil 
effects  resulting  from  it — if  the  governors  of  the  Uni- 
versity should  lose  thought  of  or  disregard  this  demand. 
It  would  be  the  more  to  be  lamented,  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that  so  much  has  been  accomplished  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  true  idea  of  the  institution  within  the  very 
recent  years.  The  University  is  strong — let  it  not  be 
forgotten — only  as  each  and  all  of  its  departments  are 
strong,  and  are  rich  in  resources  as  well  as  in  the  best 
and  most  genuine  life. 

The  very  rapid  and  remarkable  growth  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  the  latest  part  of  the  century  just  ended  bears 
498 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

also  with  itself  a  most  impressive  suggestion  and  lesson 
with  reference  to  the  need  of  a  constant  increase  of  its 
endowment.  Every  growing  institution  demands  for  its 
life  the  means  of  larger  development,  while  the  one 
which  does  not  grow  begins  soon  to  show  signs  of 
weakness  or  decay.  No  one,  I  am  sure,  who  has  been  a 
'close  observer  of  Yale  and  its  progress,  even  since  1886, 
can  have  failed  to  see  how  immediately  every  addition 
to  its  funds  has  been  made  helpful  in  its  educational 
work,  and  thus  in  a  high  degree  advantageous  to  its 
students.  But  each  forward  movement,  which  has  in 
this  way  been  rendered  possible,  has  only  brought  with 
greater  distinctness  before  the  mind  the  desirability  and 
importance  of  a  still  farther  advance,  to  the  end  that  a 
yet  larger  measure  of  good  may  be  realized.  The 
lesson  and  suggestion  are  the  same  in  the  case  of  every 
school  or  department  of  the  University.  The  effective- 
ness of  every  one  is,  and  must  be,  dependent  on  the 
supply  of  its  imperative  and  growing  necessities. 

The  era  in  which  we  pass  from  the  second  century 
of  our  history  to  the  third  is  one  which,  as  I  cannot  help 
feeling,  brings  a  special  appeal  to  all  the  graduates  and 
friends  of  the  institution  to  do  great  things  for  it.  We 
are  far  more  able  to  render  it  such  service  than  our 
fathers  were,  and  a  far  larger  work  is  opening  upon  us 
and  those  who  are  to  follow  us.  It  becomes  us,  surely, 
to  have  the  spirit  which  the  fathers  had — the  spirit  that 
led  them  to  determine  that  the  college  which  they  knew 
in  their  time  should  become  a  grand  university  in  the 
days  of  their  descendants,  and  to  devote  themselves  with 
generosity  to  its  highest  interests. 


This  volume,  however,  is  one  of  memories — not  of 
prophecies,  or  outlook  upon  the  future; — and,  as  I  close 

499 


MEMORIES     OF     YALE      LIFE     AND     MEN 

its  pages,  I  gladly  turn  backward  for  a  moment  from 
the  end  to  the  beginning.  The  little  company  of  youths 
who  entered  within  the  College  gates  on  that  pleasant 
autumn  day,  in  1845,  nad  varied  callings  and  allotments 
in  life  awaiting  them  when  the  manly  career  opened  after 
their  graduation.  To  me  alone  of  all  the  number  it 
was  given  to  find  my  permanent  home  and  sphere  of 
life-work  in  the  University  itself.  The  studies  and  the 
friendships  of  the  long  years, — the  pleasures  of  teaching, 
as  well  as  of  learning, — the  possibilities  of  service  in  the 
upbuilding  and  the  administration  of  the  University, — 
the  blessing  which  is  brought  to  the  soul  through  the 
kindly  regard  of  all  the  sons  of  the  institution,  and  by 
reason  of  an  affectionate  sentiment  towards  all, — the 
joy  of  witnessing  the  success  that  has  been  realized  for 
Yale  in  a  measure  beyond  my  highest  anticipation — these 
gifts  have  proved  to  be  included  in  the  privilege  that  was 
granted  me,  and  they  have  made  me  ever  thankful  for  it. 
That  autumn  day  of  the  past  was  indeed  full  of 
promise — that  day  of  the  beginning, — and  the  teaching 
which  has  come  from  it  to  my  mind  and  heart,  as  the 
years  have  passed,  is  that  life  grows  happier  as  we  move 
onward  in  its  course. 


500 


